Yurio's Secret Pastime
by goctyudicbdkvhb175749674
Summary: Even Yurio has to have a bit of fun every once in a while, and it just so happens that he has a secret way of unwinding. How does he relax, you ask? Well, he's secretly one of the biggest shippers out there, and join him, Phichit, and Otabek in their chaos and cliche filled adventure as they follow Yuuri and Victor around on an epic shipping quest.
1. Yurio's Secret Pastime

**Yep. I've officially hopped onto the Yuri on Ice bandwagon, and I've also rowed myself onto the Victuuri Ship, which countless people have already boarded as soon as the first episode aired. Yay! *throws confetti everywhere* Now it's time for harassing my non-Yuri on Ice-watching friends into watching the anime, too! To be honest, and don't kill me for this, but I hadn't expected to get this much into the anime when I first started watching. I'm so glad that my best friend suggested it to me! I can't say her name, but shout-out to her if she's reading this, because she's the reason why I got so into Yuri on Ice in the first place! ^^**

 **This is my first time writing in the Yuri on Ice fandom, so I hope that this story doesn't suck too much. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and I hope that all the characters aren't too OOC, considering the context of this story. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling for now, let's begin! Also, I don't know that much about social media since I don't have an account of my own, so sorry if I get a few details about that wrong. ^^;**

 **(Note: I'll be calling Yuri P. Yurio instead of Yuri to avoid confusion between Yuuri and Yuri, like how Yuuri's family did when Yurio first visited the hot spring. It's only been one sentence, and their names are already starting to get jumbled up in my head! XD)**

* * *

It was quite a while until ice-skating season, a few months, actually, since the last season had just ended, and there weren't going to be any major competitions for at least a month. Sure, that didn't give an excuse for Yuuri or any of his friends to slack off on their training, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed than before an event such as the Grand Prix Final. Victor had moved with Yuuri into the family inn, as the two of them didn't have too much of a plan about where they would be in the future; Victor and Yuuri only knew that they wanted to pursue skating together for the time being, while their bodies could still handle the immense pressure.

They'd been practicing at the Ice Castle Rink after Yuuri won silver at the Grand Prix Final, and Victor had also been very adamant about entering competitions where he and Yuuri could skate as a pair, since they were now a couple.

In fact, when they had participated in their first pair skate, they officially announced their relationship on live television for millions to see. There had been speculation about their relationship before, but the moment they went public about their love, the internet nearly broke, making the announcement go viral not only in the skating world but in the general media as well. Now, they couldn't get the privacy they had previously gotten before when going out in public because they were always swamped by fans and reporters, and while Victor had taken it in stride, having been used to it for his entire life, Yuuri was significantly more camera shy. Still, that didn't stop Victor from dragging Yuuri out of the crowd and in front of the camera, just so that someone could snap a cute pose of them together.

Yuuri was bothered by this, being the shy, private person that he was, but there was nothing he could do to avoid all this attention. Victor's extroverted nature wasn't what caused for them to be constantly surrounded by journalists, tourists, and fans, but it definitely didn't help.

Other than the unwanted press coverage, though, life was looking pretty good.

It was late at night, and Yuuri and Victor were training at Ice Castle Rink. They skated so late at night to avoid any daytime crowds, because only god knew what would happen if they dared to set foot in a public rink during the day. Fangirls and fanboys? News people? Anyone who just wanted to take a peek at two famous people? All Yuuri knew was that the results wouldn't be pretty. So, they resorted to secretly using the rink only at night, which would also resolve the issue of getting in the way of anyone who wanted to skate during opening hours. It wasn't easy practicing a skating routine when you were trying to swerve your way past a ring of people that were skating around the ice.

The room was dark except for a few overhead lights, and both Yuuri and Victor were sweating bullets. Yuuri was resting near the outer edge of the ice, his back hunched over, his hands using the railing for support, and his breath wildly scattered throughout the nearly empty building.

Victor didn't appear to be as tired as Yuuri, but he undoubtedly showed signs of slowing down. His jumps which had been flawless an hour ago were starting to wobble a bit, and he nearly fell a few times. Yuuri didn't know how Victor kept going; even though Yuuri was an athlete, his muscles were on fire.

However, despite their exhaustion, they were still teasing each other in a friendly manner from across the ice, especially when Yuuri pointed out Victor's perpetually thinning hair.

"Can that be the one thing we don't talk about?" Victor pleaded as they rounded another lap, but Yuuri just stuck his tongue out and joined Victor, the both of them trying to cram in more practice before sleep inevitably dragged them back to bed.

Yuuri looked down at his watch, which said that the time was 2:34 A.M. It wasn't bad; they only had about thirty minutes of practice left before they could go back home, take a dip into the hot-spring waters to calm their twitchy, hurting, cramping limbs, and roll into bed together.

"Alright, I think we should call it a night," Victor gracefully traveled in a curved line, him not even bothering to pick his feet up and letting momentum do the job, and stretched his arms out and yawned as he exited the ice. Yuuri wasn't too far behind, either, grateful to be getting some rest after this. After Victor sat on one of the locker-room's benches, Yuuri helped him unlace his skates, and Victor did the same when Yuuri settled down as well.

They haphazardly shoved their skates into their own lockers and, leaning on each other, exited the building.

* * *

A soak in the hot-spring was just what Yuuri needed to do before sleeping, and after bathing in the spring's warm waters, he and Victor were on their shared bed, laying across from each other with Victor scrolling through his phone, just like he always did. Since many of the people they knew lived in different countries, and oftentimes massively different time-zones, they depended on social media to keep tabs on what everyone was doing. There was Phichit who had posted a selfie on the ice a few hours ago, although pedaling dangerously fast through the ice while taking a selfie didn't look like the safest thing to do, and Yuuri could even catch a glimpse of Phichit's coaching in the background, who was presumably yelling at Phichit to not bring his phone with him onto the ice. Yuuri hoped that Phichit waited until after he got off the rink to post that selfie, too.

It seemed that Chris wasn't doing too badly, either, and Yuuri blushed when Victor scrolled through a picture of Chris lounging around in a pool. As expected, he was only wearing a tightly-fitting speedo.

What really caught Yuuri's eye, though, was when Victor opened up his Facebook to find something interesting.

"Hey, Yuuri, I found a new VictorxYuuri fanclub on Facebook, although this one's kind of interesting," Victor commented as Yuuri leaned in curiously.

"How come?" Yuuri asked.

Victor replied, "The fanclub's name is 'Victuuri.'"

"Victuuri?" Yuuri quirked up an eyebrow. He asked, "Is that what people are calling it now?"

"Yeah," Victor nodded. "I believe they got the name from putting both of our's together and making a pun out of it."

"Well, that's something," Yuuri blinked, unaware of how famous the term "Victuuri" would become.

* * *

Over the next few days, Victuuri, just like the relationship it represented, exploded all over the internet. Yuuri and Victor were hiding out at the Ice Castle Rink, which was closed for today. They had copies of the keys, so they woke up long before the butt-crack of dawn, hightailed it out of the inn without telling anyone, and locked themselves in the rink, which was, again, conveniently closed that day.

They wanted to lay low as much as possible, until the hype around Victuuri died down. Little did they know, though, this Victuuri thing wasn't going to go away any time soon, nor did they know that a blonde, particularly angry former rink-mate of Victor's had something to do with all of this.

* * *

In Russia, in the dead of night, Yurio, who was sitting in his room, in front of his computer, with his back hunched and eye-bags that looked like they were going to pop out of his skull, furiously typed on his keyboard. He hated to admit it, but he was much, much more into Victuuri than he was letting on. In fact, he had subconsciously shipped Victor and Yuuri from the beginning, and even though he actually did have an undying, passionate desire to beat that pig, Yuuri, so hard in competition that it would take him multiple seasons just to recover from such a humiliating defeat, Yuuri had grown on Yurio over the past year, not that he'd ever tell anyone that.

He didn't dare say it, but Yuuri was a nice guy. Not to mention, Yuuri and Victor were great for shipping purposes.

Yurio grumbled. How the hell did he even get this much into fan pairings and Victuuri as a whole?!

Because of his practice during the way, he could only update all the Victuuri-related content he posted on his social media accounts at night. To moderate all the Victuuri stuff he was posting, he used separate accounts from his main ones, and absolutely no one, anyone, not even his grandfather, could find out about his secret favorite pastime: shipping.

In fact, he didn't only post VictorxYuuri pictures and messages; he was the anonymous moderator of the Victuuri Fanclub on Facebook. Yes, he actually did that in his free time, albeit in absolute, unwavering secrecy. His rink mates, if they found out, would never let him hear the end of it, and Yakov might not even take him seriously anymore if his online activities were revealed.

Yurio glowered. He couldn't believe that he was _this_ far down the shipping rabbit-hole. Shipping people and characters was fun, exciting, even a guilty pleasure, but Yurio kind of regretted taking Yuuri and Victor's names one day and smashing them together, creating a clever pun in the process, if he did say so himself. He, yes, _he_ , the grumpy, moody teenager of the ice-skating world, created the term "Victuuri" one night when he needed something new to post to his followers online.

Yurio sighed, let his back fall into his bed, the rest of his body following suit, and landed on the soft mattress with a faint thud. His blonde hair sprawled all over the sheets and his face, and he blew a few strands of hair away from his eyes so that he could see better.

To think, it had all started when he received the silliest text message from Phichit, who was at the time blabbering on about how happy he was for Victor and Yuuri. Yurio ignored the texts at first, but eventually, he caved into all the pressure he was getting from Phichit's text messages and finally checked his Instagram. Sure enough, it was flooded with pictures of Victor and Yuuri together, along with thousands of posts written by fans about how they knew Yuuri and Victor were a couple the entire time.

At first, Yurio scoffed and stuck his tongue out at the screen, screaming to his computer that he didn't have time for this silly shit, but, as time went on, he discovered more ships. And fanart. And more ships. And fanfiction. And even a ship that involved himself with Otabek. That ship made Yurio cringe, but after a while, he found himself, much to his dismay, plunging into the world of shipping and anime.

Now, he was secretly the undisputed shipping god of the internet, even creating a separate account called "DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips," which, more quickly than he would've liked, gained steam on the internet. It had all brought him to where he was now, sitting in front of his computer at three in the morning and scouring the internet for some new Victuuri and Lawlight pictures to link on his accounts. He was, according to many, the shipping god of the internet, and had an entire network full of followers that were eagerly awaiting the next nosebleed-inducing post. He was working on a video, too, about all the Victuuri moments he could compile into one film, and looking at the clock one final time, Yurio realized that he was going to be exhausted by morning whether he succumbed to sleep right now or not since it was so late.

"Well... since it's so close to the time that I'm supposed to wake up, anyway, there's really no point in trying to get some sleep..." Yurio convinced himself.

Well, at least it gave him an excuse to finish the video.

* * *

"Hey, look, there's been another Victuuri video posted, aww, it's so cute! It was posted by DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips!" Victor and Yuuri were at the Ice Castle Rink at midnight, as usual, and they were practicing like they always did. Yuuri was doing some whirls around the ice, while Victor had gotten a notification on his phone and decided to see what was going on.

"What is it?" Yuuri skidded up to Victor and peeked over the edge of his phone.

"Is from that Victuuri fanclub I found on Facebook a few days ago!" Victor leaned against the walls of the rink while Yuuri hovered above him, a quizzical expression on his face.

"Come on, you have to get back on the ice," Yuuri rolled his eyes, sounding unimpressed. "Who created that fanclub, anyway, and why did you even decide to follow and like the fanclub that's about _us_?" He used his pointer-finger to point at both himself and Victor, his forefinger going back and forth between the two of them to emphasize his point, "You can't follow a fanclub when it's about yourself! It doesn't make sense." With that, Yuuri tugged gently on Victor's arm to convince him to get back onto the ice. When that didn't work, Yuuri tried pulling a bit harder. He then tried poking Victor a few times, even calling his name every once in a while, but Victor stood there and continued marveling at his phone, which was playing that Victuuri video he had mentioned. Sighing that it had to come to this, Yuuri reached up as high as he could without tripping on his skates, extended his arm, and touched Victor's small patch of thinning hair.

"Okay! Okay! I'll get back to practice! You've wounded me, you know! My hair's a sensitive subject nowadays!" Victor practically tossed his phone off the rink, into a pile of jackets that was laying on a nearby bench, and raced to the other side of the ice faster than what should've been possible.

Yuuri groaned, shaking his head from side to side and face-palming as he did so. No matter how brilliant Victor was, Yuuri occasionally had those WTF moments when he questioned where Victor's mind had wandered off to. This was one of those times.

"You coming, Yuuri?!" Victor called out.

"Yeah," Yuuri sighed, pondering about when all this Victuuri crap would die down, and he joined Victor on the other side of the court, where they proceeded to skate a few circles around each other to get warmed up for the lift they were planning. Yuuri was getting tired of all the public attention their relationship was getting. Was a little peace too much to ask for?

* * *

Yurio watched in horror as the view count for the Victuuri video he had posted the other day grew exponentially. He knew that the video would get a decent amount of views, but not this much! He should've known that the video would go viral! It appeared that his desire to ship outwitted his need for secrecy on the internet, unfortunately. No one had discovered the identity of DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips yet, but people were already beginning to speculate.

Some thought that the identity of DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips was just Victor who had created the account as an odd, sweet gesture towards Yuuri; Victor had even started following DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips for crying out loud. Many were quick to point out, though, that you don't usually follow your own account, so Victor was quickly struck out as a suspect in regards as to who had created the Victuuri account and popularized the term in the first place.

Phichit was also another likely contender in the eyes of the media, but him being the secret moderator of DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips was swiftly ruled out as well, as he already ran a separate Victuuri and shipping fanclub called "Shipping On Ice," which obviously poked fun at the fact that he was a figure skater. If Phichit was that public about his shipping habits, then there was no reason for the anonymity that revolved around who actually ran DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips.

The internet was stuck in a months-long debate over who ran DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, all while Yurio secretly ran things from his bedroom and regretted that he had gotten into shipping to begin with.

In fact, that was what he was doing right now. It was nighttime, and he was sitting on his bed, his laptop being the only source of light, and harboring plenty of regrets surrounding the whole shipping thing. His muscles aching and sore from practice and his mind buzzing with potential shipping and fan content, he was, his fingers flying across the keyboard, doing a Q&A. Apparently, the account that Phichit ran, Shipping on Ice, had reached out to Yurio's account. Phichit had even sneaked in a question about who really ran the account, but Yurio had the sense to refuse to answer that question.

To be honest, Yurio was so paranoid about what would happen if anyone discovered his secret pastime that he had nightmares about a career-ending scandal involving the shipping account he secretly ran, despite the fact that Yurio knew that his worries were far beyond irrational. The worse that could happen was mild embarrassment and some teasing, so Yurio didn't know where all of this secrecy came from, but he couldn't help it. It was so embarrassing that he was this much of a fanboy!

But why was he this neurotic about someone uncovering his shipping habit?

Did he have too much pride to lose if anyone found out? Was he too worried about the opinions of others? Or was he just ashamed that he liked shipping so much?

However, for whatever reason, Yurio was far too deep into this to escape, and even though he didn't want to say so, even to himself, he'd rather risk some international embarrassment than have to give up shipping. Shipping was simply too much fun! How could someone stop once they'd started?! Yurio didn't even think that it was possible for someone to stop once they started shipping a couple.

Yurio opened up the Facebook page of Shipping on Ice, and as he scrolled through the yaoi section, he nearly gave himself a nosebleed. There wasn't only Victor and Yuuri-related content, either. There were fanfictions about multiple animes, people arguing over which pairings were the best, and even an article that scientifically explained why Yurio and Otabek made the best couple. Yurio tried to avoid that article, but his curiosity got the better of him.

After going through more stuff, he really did start having a nosebleed, and he was even forced to stuff some tissues up his nose to avoid staining his bed-sheets. Yurio still wondered how in the world he was reduced to such a state, but now that he was forced to nurse his nosebleed, the question didn't gnaw away at him as much.

He also wondered how Yakov would react if he ever went through Yurio's browsing history, which reminded him: he hadn't cleared his browsing history in nearly two days, so it was probably best that he do that now. Just in case anyone got through the password locking his laptop and dared to take a look at Yurio's browsing history, the action of clearing it ensured that the mortification and embarrassment would be kept to a minimum. Still, that didn't stop the paranoia Yurio held surrounding his computer and phone.

Then, as if fate was trying to screw him over, Yurio jumped as he heard the sound of his bedroom's doorknob twisting. He would've yelped if he hadn't restrained himself. Yurio, panicking as his eyes glued themselves to the doorknob, had to think quickly. Since it was the off season, he was at his grandfather's house, and his grandfather probably wouldn't have been happy if he discovered his grandson up at two in the morning with a nosebleed because of some adorable fanart.

Yurio's reflexes were as sudden and as quiet as a cat's. He silently yet swiftly closed his laptop with both hands, slid his laptop to the foot of his bed, and dove under the sheets, closing his eyes and steadying his breathing so that he appeared to be asleep.

He ever so slightly cracked an eye open, just in time to see his grandfather enter the room and pace towards his bed. Yurio tried his best to refrain from shaking underneath the covers because that would be a dead giveaway that he wasn't actually asleep, and he resisted the temptation to wipe his all of a sudden sweaty forehead.

Yurio held his breath as his grandfather noticed the computer. The old man breathed out deeply, his breath almost creating a whistling noise.

"Must've fallen asleep while he was scrolling through the internet, I see," his grandfather sighed, and he gently took the laptop in his hands, bent down, and slid the device underneath Yurio's bed, presumably so that it could sit there safely while Yurio "slept."

Yurio's grandpa shook his head and sighed yet again, "That boy's going to ruin his eyes if he keeps this up. Not to mention his sleep." He then exited the room, silently closing the door behind him, and Yurio let out the biggest breath of relief known to man.

Swiftly pouncing out from his position underneath his blankets, Yurio scrambled off the bed, retrieved his laptop, and hopped back onto his mattress. He gave out an even larger sigh of relief when he discovered that the Q&A he had been working on hadn't been erased when he slammed the device shut, and, peeking towards the door one final time to make sure that no one was watching, Yurio resumed typing and scrolling through Victuuri posts.

His grandfather was most likely going to have a talk to him in the morning about how he needed to get more sleep and stop ruining his eyes by using his computer in such a dark room, but that was the worst of it.

Yurio's secret was safe, and that was what mattered. No one, absolutely no one, could discover how much he loved shipping.

* * *

 **Okay, so I'm probably going to post another chapter, but I'll stop if you think it's bad. Sorry if Yurio is really OOC, but it kind of has to be that way for the story to work, if that makes sense. Phichit will probably have a larger role as the story progresses, too, and he and Yurio are probably going to go on an epic quest to secretly follow around Victor and Yuuri and take pictures of them to post on their accounts. Hijinks are definitely expected to be present as the story goes on, and I can't wait to dive into what lengths Yurio and Phichit are willing to go to in order to have some nice, fluffy Victuuri content to post.**

 **Otabek will be included more, too, and he might even act as an accomplice to all the chaos and help Yurio out a bit. I'm so excited to write the second chapter, and that will probably be the point where Phichit discovers Yurio's secret love of shipping. Although, the next chapter might take a while because high school loves giving everyone a hard time.**

 **Please read and review, and enjoy as the insanity unfolds!**


	2. Phichit, Shipping Deity of the Universe

**Chapter 2 - Phichit, Shipping Deity of the Universe**

 **(Also, I want to thank someone who reviewed as a guest for inspiring the title; they reviewed under the** **pen-name "P," so thank-you very much, P, for inspiring the title. ^^)**

* * *

If Yuri Plisetsky was the shipping god of the internet, then Phichit was the shipping deity of the universe. It was a well known fact that Phichit was the number one Victuuri fan out there. Not only was he more vocal about his love for shipping than Yurio, but he had also created Shipping On Ice long before Yurio decided to bring DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips into the world. There was even a bit of indirect competition between the two shipping accounts, but, despite Yurio being Yurio, the two shipping networks had managed to stay friendly with each other.

Yurio, since he had to separate his online shipping persona from his real-life personality as much as he possibly could, did his best to be approachable and civil when posting stuff for DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips. When he was online, he seldom shouted at anyone, never threw out an insult, and did his best to not lose any followers. That way, in case anyone grew suspicious of his online activities, they would think that Yurio couldn't possibly be the one behind DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, and surprisingly, Yurio liked communicating through his online alter-ego because he was able to let down the walls he had built up in real life.

Shipping was meant to be a relaxing thing for Yurio, so it was secretly satisfying to detach himself from the angry front he put up when talking to people face to face.

Still, no one, and he meant no one, could ever, ever, ever, ever, ever discover his love of shipping. _No one._ Yurio couldn't repeat that phrase enough times in his head. No one could ever discover that he was the founder of the word "Victuuri"; no one could find out that he watched anime almost exclusively for the ships; no one could even suspect that he watched anime, for he was far too embarrassed to admit that he watched this sort of stuff.

This part of Yurio, the gentler, shipping side of him, would never see the light of day. It could only be here, locked up in a dark room where no one could find it. It was cruel, Yurio thought, that he kept this half of him hidden away and trapped in layers of anonymity. This half of him was being suffocated, whilst the angrier, more lively side of his personality went unrestrained and unrestricted. The moody-teenager part of himself was flaunted for all to see while Yurio's shyer, more passive, shipping-obsessed component was trapped in his own room.

It was sad, really. It was so sad that Yurio was too embarrassed to let his more emotional, anime-loving half out, but he could never do such a thing. He was too stuck-up and stubborn to ever open up about this shipping habit of his, and this would probably be a secret that he took to his grave.

Maybe those would be his last words. Maybe, just maybe, when he was long done with his figure-skating career and laying in his hospital bed, when he was old and ready to accept death, he would, using his final breath, utter, "You know that shipping account, DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips? I'm the moderator of that account. Peace-out, bitches-" then die. Yes, if it ever came to that, those would be his final words, as morbid as that sounded. Hey, at least he was planning ahead. Yurio made a mental note that if enough people still knew about Victuuri, his admission to being one of the biggest Victuuri shippers on the internet would be his final words, well, if the internet was still a thing in seventy years.

Yurio paused in his typing. The atmosphere in his room stilled, and the air was almost sour. To think, that he was so interested in shipping that even his last words would revolve around it. That made Yurio realize even more than before that he wanted, when he was old and his body had broken down, to die peacefully in his sleep. Yeah, there was all the stuff about dying painlessly and not even knowing that you were dead, but he also wanted to avoid the awkward implication of having to state that he was the one behind Victuuri. And even worse, what if they managed to save his life after he admitted that he loved shipping? He couldn't live with the knowledge that the world knew his secret!

Yurio grunted and blindly punched his fists into the air, taking a few swings at an imaginary foe before toppling back down onto his bed, and he almost knocked his computer off the sheets in the process. Why did things have to be so complicated? Shipping wouldn't even let him die in peace, much less allow for him to live without the fear of somebody uncovering his biggest secret.

Even in the safety of his room inside his grandfather's house, Yurio could still feel his own paranoia creep up from behind him. Honestly, he still couldn't believe that he was a shipper, nor could he believe that he shipped his two biggest rivals.

"What have I become...?" Yurio muttered to himself, and he bent his back down in complete and utter shame.

* * *

"Yurio! I'm so glad that you decided to visit Japan, too! I didn't know that you'd be here!" Yurio cringed when he heard Phichit's excited-sounding, hyperactive voice that got louder as the Thai skater descended the escalator. Yurio was already on ground level, and in an attempt to send Phichit the message that he wasn't in the mood for conversation, Yurio backed away from the escalator Phichit was on. Yurio would have bolted out of the room if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't familiar with the airport's layout, too. Yurio found it hard to imagine that he and Phichit actually got along on the internet. In real life, though... not so much.

"You don't need to scream so loud that the entire fucking airport can hear you! And for god's sake, don't called me Yurio!" Yurio shouted back, completely ignoring how loud he was being and how parents plugged up their children's ears as soon as Yurio started speaking.

Yurio had sneaked off to Japan because he really needed a change of pace from his routine back in Russia. Against Yakov's wishes, Yurio used the internet to track down the cheapest plane ticket he could possibly find, ninja-ed his way out of St. Petersburg, and hightailed it to Japan, not knowing that Phichit would be there as well. Yurio came to Japan under the pretense that he wanted to practice with people other than his rink mates. In actuality, though, there was a shipping and anime convention coming up in Japan, and Yurio, since there was no such thing as an anime convention in Russia, wanted a piece of the action. That's how he found himself here, at an airport that was located in a tiny town in Japan, and his heart was beating audibly from his excitement for the anime convention coming up in a few days.

He told his followers online that he wouldn't be going to that convention after multiple people asked, but in truth, he was going there if it was the last thing he did. Of course, he was smart enough to wear a disguise, more specifically cosplay, so that no one would discover that he was there. He even had his cosplay outfit ready weeks before the convention: since he was petite and looked quite young, he'd be going as Ciel from Black Butler. He had a wig and everything, and he hoped that his costume would be enough to keep people from recognizing him. The eye-patch would probably help, too, along with the contact-lenses he had purchased to make his blue-green eyes appear larger and have a more intense shade of blue, and he could use some of the hair on his wig to obscure his face even further. Not to mention, if anyone started suspecting anything about him, Yurio would force himself to leave immediately.

This was probably on the dumber end of his spectrum of decisions, but he couldn't resist. He'd never get an opportunity like this back at home, and he might never get another chance like this in the future.

There was no not going; he simply had to remain discrete. What made it even easier to blend in was that a lot of people were probably going to dress up as Ciel Phantomhive, since Black Butler was such a popular anime, so no one would bat an eye if they saw Yurio in costume walking around the convention.

Yes, Ciel was almost a perfect choice to cosplay as, at least in Yurio's circumstances. Ciel, in the anime, wore plenty of clothing that would be great at covering up, which was a good thing if you were a high-profile celebrity trying to blend in at an anime convention, and, again, the convention was guaranteed to have a bunch of Ciel Phantomhives walking back and forth.

Anyway, back to Phichit, who was quickly approaching Yurio.

In that same, annoying, sing-songy voice, Phichit exclaimed, "Have you seen your social media feed, lately?! An account called DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips has been blowing up, and I even got to do a Q&A with them! And..." Phichit paused before he said his next sentence, and he clamped his hand over his mouth, probably in an attempt to restrain his apparent excitement, as his body trembled with joy. Yurio already knew what was coming next.

"I'M GOING TO THAT ANIME CONVENTION THAT'S TAKING PLACE IN A FEW DAYS!"

Yup, Yurio had guessed what Phichit was going to say to the letter.

"Shut up, I don't care," Yurio growled, although it pained him to say that. After all, he was going to the anime convention himself, albeit in secret, and he'd personally murder anyone who dared to trash-talk anime. Still, he had to play his part, so, with his fingers curled up into balls, he turned around to storm off. There weren't too many people in the airport, but the building was small enough so that it appeared crowded. The airport looked kind of old and rundown, but it was only natural because Yuuri lived in one of the older, smaller towns. Now that Yurio thought about it, it appeared that a lot of people had moved out since the last time he had been here, not that he cared too much. He was only focused on how he would avoid Phichit at that anime convention, since he ran the risk of being recognized if he ran into Phichit there.

Ignoring Phichit's greetings, ways to avoid the fellow fanboy at the convention ran through Yurio's mind. It was impossible to predict Phichit's every move during the convention, but Phichit had posted online that he would probably spend the majority of the convention in the west wing of the convention area. On a post he had made a few days ago, Phichit also said that he'd be at the convention for all three days from eight in the morning to six in the evening, and, because life just loved to troll everybody, those were the times Yurio would hang around the convention area, too. Yurio had also planned to go to one of the midnight panels, so perhaps he could be more carefree during that time.

The plans concerning how to avoid running into people he knew skipped through Yurio's mind; those plans were frantic, almost as if his mind was in a panic. After all, Yurio had reasons to be worried.

"Aw! Come on!" Yurio could hear Phichit whine behind him. "That convention'll be fun! Can't you come with me, please?! Victor and Yuuri aren't that into anime, and you and Otabek are my only options! And Otabek might get here late because of a six-hour delay! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease? At least keep me company until Otabek gets here! Yuuri and Victor said that they were going to be busy, too!" Yurio nearly screamed when Phichit stretched out that "e" in his please.

However... one thing did get his attention.

"Wait, Otabek's going to be there?!" Yurio let his jaw hang in shock. Why the hell would Otabek out of all people go to an anime convention?! The last time Yurio checked, Otabek rarely even watched TV, much less anime because when it came to anime, no self-respecting anime fan would not binge on a show at least once. Otabek, who was on the more serious end when it came to personalities, just didn't seem like the type of person to be into that kind of stuff... Then again, no one would expect for Yurio to be into shipping or even anime, so who was he to talk?

"Yup! It turns out that Otabek is an anime theorist who runs a website and YouTube channel called 'The Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop Culture!' Yeah, I know that it's a wordy name, but it's so cool, look!" Yurio widened his eyes at what Phichit had just uttered because he had actually heard of The Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop culture, the creator of which was a legendary anime theorist, not long after starting his own shipping account, and before Yurio knew it, Phichit had shoved a phone, more specifically his phone, up to Yurio's face. On it, Yurio could see a website, and upon reading a few lines, he discovered that the post was some sort of analysis of an anime that had been on his to-watch list for a while now: Cowboy Bebop.

Yurio had wanted to watch that anime for a long time, but due to practice and the mountain of anime he still needed to watch, he still hadn't gotten around to seeing it. What really unnerved Yurio, though, was that he and The Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop Culture were currently doing a collab, and Yurio had chatted with that account through PM only yesterday. That sent tingles up Yurio's spine, as he found it kind of creepy to meet his fellow shippers and analysts in real life.

After snapping back to reality, Yurio shoved the phone out of his face because Phichit held it so close to his eyes that they had started to hurt, and he simply grunted, "It's not my job to entertain you until the convention. I have my own things to do, you know!"

"Aw, come on!" Phichit clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. "Could we at least hang out today?! Yuuri and Victor are practicing for a competition, Otabek won't arrive until at least another twelve hours, and I'll be lonely!"

"No, go away!" Yurio tried to yank himself from Phichit, but Phichit grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing for Yurio to stay a few more seconds. Phichit's eyes were wide and watery with desperation, which surprised Yurio. Why did Phichit want to hang out with him? He and Phichit hadn't exactly developed a bond when they were competing against each other, and Phichit didn't know a thing about his secret obsession with shipping.

"Once Otabek arrives, you'll get to hang out with him, too!" Phichit cried out and knelt in front of Yurio, begging for him to tag along and attracting the unwanted attention of passersby.

Yurio took a deep breath. Phichit did have a good point; it'd been a while since Yurio had seen Otabek, and the Russian skater was dying to catch up with his friend. Knowing that he would regret this for the rest of his life, Yurio took a deep breath of resignation and hollowly said in a soft yet harsh voice, "Fine, but for your sake, I hope that Otabek gets here soon to keep me from murdering you."

"O-okay...!" Phichit jumped back a few centimeters, the blood draining from his face as it would if he had just seen a bear, but nevertheless, he was ecstatic just moments later. "Alright!" with an excited wave, Phichit whirled around to march off with Yurio. "Let's go!"

"You know, I may have been here only once, but you're going in the wrong direction," Yurio face-palmed when Phichit turned towards the escalator he had just came down on.

"Right, right, I knew that," Phichit immediately turned around, which made him look even more like an idiot as he pointed towards the exit. "Follow me!"

"I don't need you to point out the exit when you can't even tell that from the entrance!" Yurio barked, and he shoved his hands into his pockets after forcibly yanking the hood of his jacket over his head. Yurio said, between gritted teeth, "Just keep a low profile; I don't want to be caught hanging out with you."

"Why so shy?" Phichit smiled, oblivious to Yurio's internal turmoil, and wrapped an arm around Yurio's shoulders, causing for Yurio to shutter and duck his head down even further. "We're friends, right?" Phichit grinned as if there wasn't a problem in the world.

There was a problem, though, a big one. The problem was that Yurio didn't know how to shake Phichit loose in time for the convention. Maybe if he was snappy enough, he'd drive Phichit away, but he also didn't want to lose Otabek, which was the only reason why he was around Phichit in the first place.

As Otabek popped into Yurio's mind, Yurio looked at the clock, hoping that the next twelve hours would pass by quick. If Otabek was here, it would make Phichit's presence at least slightly more tolerable.

Without saying anything, Phichit yanked Yurio's arm, leading the both of them to the exit Yurio had pointed to. A silence swept over Yurio, and every time Phichit tried to strike up a conversation, Yurio avoided answering like the plague.

It was worth it, though, for Yurio had to make it to that sweet, sweet anime convention.

* * *

"Let's take a selfie!" Phichit exclaimed as he pulled a selfie stick out of seemingly nowhere and attached his phone to it. He pulled Yurio next to him, but Yurio slapped his hand away.

"What the hell?! No! I'm not going to take a selfie with you; if Yakov finds out that I'm here, he's going to drag me back, kicking and screaming, to Russia, so no one can know I'm here!" Yurio snatched the selfie stick, yanked Phichit's phone off of it, and shoved the phone back into Phichit's hands. "Besides, these selfie sticks are stupid."

"Hey! You don't have to be so mean to my selfie stick!" Phichit shook his head, and he reached out his hand and pulled the selfie stick out of Yurio's grip. He gave Yurio a pout that made Yurio want to vomit, and Phichit tucked his selfie stick back into the same unknown location he had gotten it from.

They were currently standing outside of that ninja house Victor had visited well over a year ago, possibly two, and Yurio still shuttered at that photo Victor had taken in front of it. Phichit wasn't any better, as he had almost forced Yurio into a selfie with him, but Yurio really couldn't afford to be noticed here. Not only would Yakov actually come to Japan to drag him back to Russia, kicking and screaming included, but it'd also, no matter how slightly, raise people's suspicions since there was an anime convention nearby. People made the wildest, most unpredictable connections, so it was best to remain invisible for the time being. He'd deal with Yakov's scolding later.

It was strange because Yurio was always used to being in the spotlight, but, even though he didn't want to tell Phichit, it was nice to escape the monotony back in Russia. His love for figure-skating hadn't died down one bit, but his routine had gotten so boring. Wake up before the sun's rays even tickled the earth after slamming the snooze button three million times, get yelled at by Yakov for being late, practice, go home, wherever home happened to be, stuff his face with pierogies, stay up until four in the morning managing DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, go to sleep for an hour, rinse and repeat. It was the same thing every day; the cycle was as consistent as the sun rising and the ocean's tides.

Whenever Yurio traveled, it always added a few rainbows and some spice and whatnot to his life, and for that, he was glad. Even Phichit was more tolerable than doing the same thing day in and day out. Perhaps that was why Yurio had gotten so obsessed with shipping. It was exciting and offered a break from the predictable and mundane. When he logged on and took on his online persona, it was like a breath of fresh air because fandoms were so unpredictable. Still, Yurio experienced the same boredom day after day after day, and he craved novelty and excitement.

Sighing at how much of a depressing turn his thoughts had taken, as no matter what he did, he couldn't do anything to escape the boredom of everyday life, Yurio begrudgingly trailed behind Phichit.

Even after the selfie stick incident, Phichit had snapped back to his usual self in an instant. Secretly, Yurio was jealous, jealous that Phichit wasn't so bored with life, jealous that he could be so open about his shipping, and jealous that he was so damn happy all the time. Why couldn't Yurio just suck it up and smile?

"Hey, Yurio," Phichit suddenly piped up, and Yurio knew what Phichit was going to say when the other's stomach growled.

"Don't call me Yurio," Yurio reminded Phichit for the 12 billionth time.

Phichit simply ignored Yurio's request and raised his flat hand to his forehead, using it as a guard against the glare of the bright, summer sun, "I'm hungry, let's get some ramen!"

If Yurio was telling the truth, he would say that he was actually quite hungry as well, but, because he needed to keep his pride, Yurio just grumbled and followed Phichit, muttering things even inaudible to himself underneath his breath.

They reached a small, quiet ramen shop after about thirty minutes of Phichit wondering around town, buying souvenirs, and generally just dawdling around. As much as the pandering annoyed Yurio, it relieved him just as much. Even if it was just for a week, he needed a break from the grueling, repetitive routine at home that he had came to loathe. He probably wouldn't want to leave Hasetsu by the end of the week, and he'd inevitably have to force himself, tooth and nail, back to Russia before Yakov got too pissed off. Yurio tried not to think about it, though, and to just enjoy the time he had away from the boredom he faced in his regular life. Phichit, for all his irritating attributes, provided a hurricane atop the calm, boring ocean, and with Oktabek in the equation, this would definitely be a week Yurio wouldn't forget.

They sat down with Phichit being his usual, too loud for comfort self, and Yurio reminded him that no one, other than Phichit and Otabek, could know that he was in Japan. If word got out that Yurio was in Japan, all hell would break loose. Yakov would be screaming at him from the other end of the phone before he even landed in Japan to drag Yurio back to St. Petersburg, his fangirls, known as Yuri's Angels, would be on his tail twenty-four/seven, and he'd have to deal with Victor, who was ten times as annoying as Phichit.

"Okay, I'll quiet down," Phichit lowered his voice a bit, then he sighed, pulling out his phone as he did so.

"What are you doing?" Yurio raised an eyebrow and wondered why Phichit had taken his phone out without taking a selfie first.

"I'm checking my Shipping On Ice account, but I haven't been able to find many cute Victuuri photos lately. It seems like Yuuri and Victor are hiding out, although I don't really blame them. After DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips popularized the term Victuuri and posted that video, they haven't been able to find much peace," Phichit sighed, and then a sheepish expression crossed his face. "Not that I blame them, and I'm probably not helping with all the Victuuri stuff I post, heh, heh."

"Yeah," Yurio tried to retain a gruff edge to his voice, but he was failing miserably. At the mention of Victuuri, he was squealing on the inside and wishing that he could talk about the subject openly with Phichit. Unlike Phichit, however, Yurio didn't have the courage to bring up the subject. Yurio supposed that it wouldn't hurt to let Phichit blab on about Victuuri for a while, just so that he could internally fanboy about his favorite pairing...

"Hey, what do you think of Victuuri?" Phichit suddenly asked, taking Yurio by surprise.

"Why should I care? Those two are idiots as far as I'm concerned, and I don't care if they continue to be idiots," Yurio rolled his eyes, and he took a sip of his soda to wash down the horrible words that had exited his mouth. He hated bad-mouthing his favorite ship, but he had to so that no one would find out his secret.

"They're cute together!" Phichit slammed his hands on the table, seemingly offended, and, for the second time that day, he shoved his phone up to Yurio's face, causing for his eyes to ache once more.

"Seriously, again with the phone?" Yurio whacked the phone away from his eyes, but Phichit just gave him a grin that made him look like he was daydreaming.

"Shipping's great, you know?" Phichit giggled, and a shutter rumbled through him.

"Yeah, you've pretty much been harassing me with your ships on social media for the past few months," Yurio growled while he took another sip of his drink, and the awkward position he was currently in had started to grate his nerves, as neither of them said anything after Yurio's comment about Phichit bombarding him with ships on Instagram.

It made Yurio all the more glad when the waitress arrived at the table carrying two large, steaming bowls of ramen.

"Yay! The ramen's here!" was Phichit's immediate reaction. Yurio just slapped a neutral look on his face, even though he really wanted to eat ramen after not having it for so long, and without hesitation, he began slurping down the noodles as soon as the bowl touched the table.

"Whoa, easy there, you might choke," Phichit warned as he tucked into his bowl as well.

Yurio just scoffed, him not slowing down his eating for a second, and Phichit, although at a much slower pace, enjoyed his ramen as well.

* * *

"Oi, I'm so glad you're here, I can barely stand this guy," Yurio pointed his thumb towards Phichit, who was crouching on the bed next to the one he was on and trying to access his shipping account with no luck, probably because of the lack of wi-fi.

They were residing in some random hotel room Phichit had booked. Yurio told Phichit that he was going to stay at a separate hotel, but after much persisting, Phichit had somehow convinced Yurio to stay in the same room as him. At least their little group had the addition of one member, one member that was probably Yurio's only anchor to sanity around someone as loud and out-going as Phichit. That person, of course, was Otabek, who was standing in front of them. He looked extremely tired, although that was to be expected after a six-hour delay on his flight, and the signs of severe jet-lag were evident in Otabek's eye-bags. Yurio and Phichit had also picked him up from the airport at midnight, so that added to how utterly miserable Otabek looked.

His usually combed back hair was a disheveled mess, Yurio swore that some of the color in Otabek's face was drained, and the man's clothes were also slightly rumbled, probably because Otabek hadn't had an opportunity to change outfits at the airport.

Still, Otabek managed a small smile towards Yurio, and Yurio softly smiled back.

"I'm going to take a shower," Otabek turned, set down his bag, and entered the bathroom. Phichit had rented a hotel room for the week, and although it was short a bed due to Yurio's unexpected arrival, Phichit insisted that he was more than happy to snooze on the couch. Otabek had tried to convince Phichit that he was fine sleeping on the couch, but Phichit, being his ever-persistent self, managed to get Otabek to let him sleep on the couch, stating that he was the one who invited them to his room.

As the bathroom door clicked closed, Yurio could hear the roar of shower water a few seconds later.

"I'm going to go downstairs and ask them about the wi-fi since I don't want to use up more of my cellular data. See you in a few minutes!" Phichit explained, and with that, he left, leaving Yurio alone.

With nothing else to do, Yurio took out his phone. Checking the room to make sure that it was safe for him to do so, Yurio opened his DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips account, darting his eyes around the room one last time to make sure that no one was watching, and he began feverishly typing. As mentioned earlier, he had been working on a collaboration with Otabek, and Yurio decided that this was a golden opportunity to get some progress done on his half of the collab.

It was weird that he and Otabek had been chatting all this time, all while the only thing between the two was an internet connection and computer screen, and it made Yurio paranoid about whether or not there were even more people that he knew that ran these shipping and fan accounts. He ran through all the fan accounts and theorist websites and whatnot he could think of at the top of his head, and he exhaled deeply. For his sake, he really hoped that Phichit and Otabek were the only people he knew other than himself that were into anime and shipping.

Yurio must've gotten lost in his own little world because, to his horror, he had failed to hear the sound of the door unlocking. He only noticed that Phichit had entered the room when the sound of footsteps atop of carpet pounded in his ears. Normally, Yurio would just swipe his phone into his pocket, and that would be the end of it. However, in his state of shock, Yurio's fingers suddenly went numb, and with a soft _plunk,_ his phone dropped to the floor.

Yurio didn't know what to do. He was shaking so badly that he couldn't react, even if he tried. His muscles were suddenly paralyzed, and there he sat, helplessly watching as Phichit approached the dropped phone. His face dropped, too, and he knew that his life was over. Phichit would find out about his secret hobby, the world would find out alongside him, and no one would ever take him seriously in the skating world ever again! What to do?! What to do?!

"Hey," Phichit's voice interrupted Yurio's internal dilemma. Phichit knelt down on one knee to examine the fallen phone, all while Yurio could do nothing but sit on the bed, his body as still as a statue. "You dropped your phone," Phichit said in a continuation of his previous statement.

Every moment felt like a century; every one of Phichit's moves were in slow motion while automatic thoughts zipped through Yurio's mind at the speed of light; Yurio was done for.

It took a few seconds for Phichit to realize what was going on and to see that Yurio was logged onto his DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips account, but once he did, the hugest grin spread across his face, "No way! Otabek! You have to check this out! You know that collab you're doing with DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips?! The person behind that account is Yuri!" Yurio was too speechless to have noticed that Phichit had addressed him with his real name, which was a shame, because Yurio was normally ecstatic when someone called him Yuri rather than Yurio.

Phichit waved his arms around excitedly, and he danced around the hotel room while Yurio was sitting there, his mouth practically glued shut. He should've been more careful! He didn't know what had happened to his awareness of his surroundings. He normally never reacted like this! He normally had the fine motor skills to hide his phone, but apparently, fate wasn't on his side today.

"What did you say?!" Otabek slammed open the bathroom door whilst dressed in nothing but a bathrobe. His hair was soaked and clinging onto his face, and his skin glistened due to the water that was still on it. At the sight of Otabek in nothing but a bathrobe, Yurio's face heated up, and he looked around the room for the nearest box of tissues, just in case he had a nosebleed.

"Yurio's the person behind DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, look!" Phichit held Yurio's phone up, and Otabek's face formed into a look of pure and utter giddiness that Yurio thought he'd never see.

"I can't believe it! This is great! It'll make the collab easier, too!" Yurio had never seen Otabek so excited, but he was still in complete and utter disbelief after his secret had been discovered.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Yurio felt the sensation returning to his limbs. His throat unhinged itself, and he let out an ear-splitting scream so loud that he didn't even think that his vocal cords were capable of producing such an awful noise, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! MY LIFE IS OVEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

The scream erupted out of his mouth with such force that it nearly knocked Phichit and Otabek over, and Yurio could hear the flapping of bird wings and cry of pigeons sound from outside the window. For about ten seconds, the room darkened as the largest flock of birds Yurio had ever seen flew by their window and away from the area in the most cliche way you could think of.

Yurio screamed some more, but he couldn't remember exactly what he had said. He only knew that a string of curse words flew out of his mouth like never before. As far as he was concerned, the world was crashing down right in front of his eyes and life as he knew it was over.

* * *

 **Aw, poor Yurio. I'm giving him such a hard time. XD Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and if you'd like, please review, favorite, follow, etc.**


	3. So the Epic Quest Begins

**Chapter 3 - So the Epic Quest Begins**

* * *

"Yurio? Yurio...? You okay there? You've been laying on that bed in a state of shock for the twenty minutes," Phichit was next to the nightstand and hovering over Yurio, a concerned expression on his face. Otabek, for all the stoic faces he pulled since he and Yurio met, looked quite worried as well, and he was sitting next to Yurio on the bed with his arm stretched out to stroke Yurio's hair, as an act of comfort.

"Yuri, do you need for us to call an ambulance? Like Phichit said, you've been laying here for far too long for us to not be worried," Otabek's voice was soothing to Yurio's ears, but that still didn't convince him to get up.

Then there was Yurio, who was curled up in bed and underneath the sheets, shaking. His head was buried in a pillow, and he was lying on his side with his hands over his face. He hadn't even bothered to take his shoes off before jumping under the covers. To him, it seemed as if he had been hiding in the safety of the mattress for decades, even though he knew otherwise, and in his state of shock, time seemed irrelevant. At the moment, time was just there to flow past him in a tortuously slow stream, like a thick wave of molasses tricking through a tiny funnel.

Yurio knew for sure that he didn't need an ambulance. He wasn't experiencing a heart attack or a stroke or anything that required medical attention; it was just that he didn't want to venture out into the world beyond the bed he was laying on after his secret had been discovered. Yurio whimpered a bit, but Phichit and Otabek remained surprisingly patient with him. Otabek was saying soft, gentle words of encouragement, and Phichit, who was normally happy-go-lucky, was quiet but still there for Yurio the entire time.

After a long while and countless head and back pats, their attempts to calm Yurio, no matter how corny, somehow worked. Yurio didn't know why, as forty-five minutes ago, he had thought that he was going to stay in the hotel room for the entire duration of the trip, even if it meant missing the convention. Yurio's world was still in shambles, but Otabek, being the patient person that he was, pulled Yurio into a brief yet emotional hug. Phichit gingerly wrapped his arm around Yurio, him displaying such carefulness that Yurio had never witnessed previously, and Yurio, even though he didn't know who gave it, felt a delicately executed pat ghost over his shoulder.

Phichit and Otabek must've sensed Yurio's embarrassment over his shipping obsession because Phichit flashed Yurio one of his classic smiles and reassured Yurio while giving him a thumbs up, "Don't worry, Yurio! Your secret's safe with us! We won't tell anyone!"

"Promise?" Yurio sounded gruff, almost angry, but on the inside, he was grateful for Phichit's promise. "You absolutely, positively promise?"

"My lips are sealed," Phichit's hand moved in a sweeping motion across his mouth, and Otabek nodded in agreement.

"You better, because if anyone finds out, I'll know who did it, and both of you'll be dead!" Yurio, despite his state of distress, had managed to tack on an icy edge to his voice.

Phichit gave Yurio a nervous look. It was natural, since Yurio had just threatened death, and Phichit backed away by a tiny yet noticeable bit. He waved his arms in front of himself defensively, "Whoa! I think that seems a little harsh, don't you?!"

"Hmm, you're right," Yurio held his hand up to his chin in a mock gesture of thinking, causing for Phichit to visibly relax. Yurio concluded, "Okay, I won't kill both of you." He then pointed his forefinger at Phichit, "I'm only going to murder you of anyone finds out."

"What?! No fair! Why?!" Phichit looked as if Yurio had betrayed him in the biggest way possible, but Yurio knew for sure that he'd bounce back to his regular self in no time.

"For one thing," Yurio pointed out, "Otabek is much better at keeping secrets than you, so you're much more likely to accidentally expose me to the world in the first place. Secondly, Otabek's actually my friend, so it's much easier for me to forgive him."

"What?! No fair! And I thought that I was your friend!" Phichit was now on his knees, his hands clutching the portion of bed that was in front of Yurio, and for the second time that day, his eyes were watery.

"Just shut up," Yurio looked away, and after that altercation with Phichit, Yurio felt his normal mood returning, teenage angst and all.

Phichit spluttered on and on about how he felt betrayed, but Yurio just ignored him and collapsed back onto the bed. He closed his eyes and plugged his ears to drone out Phichit's voice, but Otabek simply smiled that soft, understanding smile of his and turned around, saying, "If you don't mind, I'm going to finish blow-drying my hair." He entered the bathroom once again, leaving Yurio alone with Phichit.

Yurio blew a strand of hair out of his face since Otabek rubbing his hair earlier had caused for it to descend into a messy chaos, but despite that, Yurio secretly smiled. Yup, this was going to be a long, tedious, yet fun week.

* * *

A little while later, all had returned to normal, at seemed. Yurio was grumpy again, Otabek had come out of the bathroom after getting his hair to return to its normal state, and Phichit... well...

"Ah! This is so exciting!" Phichit was nearly bouncing off the walls in excitement. He was shaking, his nerves were jittery, and the skater was pacing around the hotel room in utter glee. His hands were outstretched in front of him, and Phichit continued, "I can't believe that I'm actually seeing DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips in the face! Guys, do you know what this means?! Do you know what this means?!"

"What does that mean?" Yurio was sitting on the edge of the bed with his arms crossed. It was late at night, and all three of them were exhausted. The room was dark except for the light of a small lamp sitting on the nightstand, and everyone else in the hotel was most likely asleep. Due to the series of events that had just happened, though, Yurio, Phichit, and Otabek couldn't sleep. Plus, conspiring late at night made the scene more intense, which gave Yurio quite a rush of exhilaration.

"That means," Phichit clapped his hands together and grinned. This time, however, it wasn't one of his usual I-want-to-be-your-best-friend grins. No, this grin had a sinister undertone to it, and Yurio had seen such a smile in the past. It was the smile of a completely rabid, obsessed fan, and it was an expression that had found its way onto Yurio's face many times before, whilst he was scrolling through adorable pictures of ships.

"Don't tell me..." Otabek spoke for the first time since he got out of the shower.

"Yes," Phichit's voice was suddenly demonic, and even though Yurio knew this voice well, it still sent shutters down his spine. It was the voice of a fan hellbent on doing whatever it took to get cute photos of their ships, and Yurio felt his skin tingle and his neck-hairs stand on their ends as Phichit flashed Yurio and Otabek the evilest face anyone could muster. Phichit face was obscured by shadows, his facial expression so dark that it was suffocating, and it was then that Yurio knew what Phichit wanted to do.

"Are... are you sure it'll work?" Otabek sounded a bit nervous.

"Of course I am!" the nightmare-inducing look on Phichit's face left as suddenly as it came, and Phichit switched back to his regular self so fast that Yurio would've missed it if he had blinked. Phichit balled up his fingers into fists, and he was trembling in apparent joy. He threw his hands into the air and exclaimed in a more hushed tone than usual due to the people sleeping next door, "This calls for the most epic collab ever between three of the biggest fan accounts on the internet!"

"All three of us? Do you think that it's possible? The internet freaked out enough when Otabek and I announced a collab," Yurio asked. He leaned on the edge of his seat, his heart pounding and his thoughts wildly rushing through his head. "Do you think the internet can handle it?"

"Why not? It's just a collaboration between the three of us!" Phichit reassured Yurio, although his voice faltered, as if he wasn't sure of his own words. Phichit was certainly doing a good job of maintaining a positive attitude, though, "Of course we can do this! All three of us are in the same room! We can't pass up an opportunity like this; just think of all the shipping potential!" Phichit spun around in what appeared to be a daze, and he collapsed onto the bed that was next to the one Yurio was perched on, "Think about it: the internet will be in a fuss over it for days, weeks, maybe even years! We don't get to see each other that often, so who knows when we'll get to do such a thing again? Especially since if we do see each other again, it's usually during a competition!"

"Well, I suppose it could work, possibly," Otabek commented.

"What do you say? Are you guys in?" Phichit sprung up from the bed, and he put his hand out in front of him so that it was in between him, Yurio, and Otabek.

"Alright, what could go wrong?" Yurio caved in. As much as he didn't want to admit it, it was like Phichit had said. Who knew how long it would be until the three of them could get together like this again? Yurio put his hand over Phichit's, and Otabek put it on top of Yurio's.

"Everyone who's in, say 'aye!'" Phichit proclaimed.

"Aye!" the three of them declared as loud as they could without waking anyone up before tossing their hands into the air, gesturing that they were in on Phichit's plan.

"Wait, so if the three of us are doing a collab, what are we going to do?" Yurio questioned.

"Otabek, Yurio, I'm aware that all three of us are huge Victuuri fans, correct?" Phichit quirked up an eyebrow, a mischievous glint creeping into his eyes.

"Yeah, that's only the best pairing ever," Yurio scoffed. That question was a no-brainer.

"You see, all three of us run some sort of internet series related to the Victuuri pairing," Phichit began.

"And where are you going with this?" Yurio eyed Phichit suspiciously.

"Here's the plan," Phichit backed away from the bed, his hands spread out in front of him as if he was giving the most important speech of his life, "since we're in Japan, we'll try to track down Yuuri and Victor, wherever they are. They've been hiding out recently, so any photos of them together will blow up on the internet. We'll follow them around and take pictures of them together, kind of like the paparazzi. Yurio and I have entire albums dedicated to Victuuri, and Otabek runs a series on his website and YouTube channel called 'Divorce Meter.' It'll be the most epic shipping quest ever, and we'll still make it in time for that anime convention! And don't say anything about this collab on your accounts yet; I want this to hit the internet hard!"

"Hmm, Divorce Meter's been something I haven't had a lot of time to do. It'd be fun to do another post like that," Otabek nodded in agreement.

In case you didn't already guess by the name, Divorce Meter's a series Otabek runs that predicts the possibility of a couple breaking up or divorcing. Granted, Yurio inferred that the possibility of Yuuri and Victor going their separate ways wasn't all too high, judging on how lovey-dovey they were with each other, but Yurio still really enjoyed reading Otabek's Divorce Meter posts.

"This is going to be the most fun I've ever had," Yurio couldn't hold it in anymore; he smirked. "This is going to be perfect... just perfect."

"Yeah!" Phichit pumped his fist into the air.

Yurio then yawned and stretched, "But my god, I'm tired. If we're going on this shipping quest like you said, let's at least get some sleep."

"Alright, alright," Phichit slumped off to the bathroom, clearly just as tired as Yurio was. "I'm going to brush my teeth."

The three of them headed to the brightly-lit bathroom, and while they had a difficult time sharing the sink, they managed to stumble out of the bathroom in the end, the eye-bags on their faces as dark as black holes and their bodies a mess of tired, achy arms and legs. They dug around their suitcases for their pajamas, and Yurio for sure would be knocked out cold as soon as his eyelids closed.

Phichit flopped onto the couch like he said he would, but Otabek piped up with a suggestion, "Hey, Yuri, since Phichit was the one who invited us here, maybe you and I could share a bed so that Phichit doesn't have to sleep on the sofa."

Yurio, who was changing into a pair of sweatpants and a gray t-shirt, turned around in one jerky, stiff movement while still in the middle of putting on his shirt. Just like when he saw Otabek coming out of the shower dressed in a bathrobe, his face heated up, although this wasn't an arrangement that he minded too much. If he wasn't so stubborn, he might've even admitted to himself that he had absolutely no objections to it, "I... I guess, I mean, sleeping on the couch isn't an ideal situation, so..."

"Alright, it's settled!" Phichit hopped from the couch to the bed a little too fast for it not to be suspicious, and he grinned suggestively at Yurio, causing for Yurio to think that Phichit had planned this all along.

"Just what are you up to, Phichit?" Yurio growled.

"Nothing..." Phichit twiddled his thumbs together, his mouth whistling a falsely innocent tune. Otabek didn't even seem to notice Phichit's suspicious behavior, and if he did, he certainly didn't show it. Otabek just casually walked over to the bed Yurio was now laying on and plopped down onto it. Otabek was wearing a loosely-fitting night robe, and Yurio had to look away to hide his now beat-red face.

When he and Otabek settled themselves onto the bed, their backs facing each other and Yurio's right arm dangling off the bed, Yurio heard Phichit's soft snore. Phichit had fallen asleep fast, but it wasn't at all surprising. It had been quite a day for all of them.

"I'm going to read a little before sleeping since it helps me doze off, so the light'll be on. Do you mind?" Otabek pulled a small book from his robe pocket.

Yurio shook his head and replied, "N-no, I don't really mind." He brought his knees up to his chest while he lied on his side, and Otabek shifted his position so that he was sitting up in bed. He began reading the book he had pulled out.

"Thank-you, and goodnight," Otabek smiled pleasantly at Yurio.

"Y-yeah, goodnight," Yurio nodded. He closed his eyes, and before he could even form another coherent thought, he drifted off into a nice, warm, and well-deserved sleep.

* * *

Yurio's eyes slowly fluttered open, and he groaned as he stirred around in bed. He turned himself over to find that Otabek had left, and he heard the faint rush of water sound off into the distance, indicating that Otabek was probably brushing his teeth or washing his face. Yurio supported himself on his elbows and pushed himself up, his eyelids still heavy and his legs feeling like cement blocks.

There was a mirror on the other end of the room, and Yurio nearly screamed when he saw his reflection. He had the worst case of bedhead he had ever experienced in his life, which included that one time when he didn't sleep for three days because of an extended weekend, due to Yakov being on vacation, and the longest live-streamed shipping marathon the internet had ever seen. Yurio was even paler than usual, his face almost looking blue, and his eyes were red and puffy from exhaustion.

He didn't think that he'd look that bad since this was the most sleep he had gotten in about two months. It was so weird that Yurio looked this terrible. He rubbed his eye-bag-infested eyes, but when his vision blurred upon his eyelids and knuckles making contact, his head jerked back. His eyes blinked painfully.

"What the hell...?" Yurio murmured. He squinted in an attempt to stabilize his vision, but when he was confronted with the bright, blue sky and the sun that was pretty much burning a hole through the window, he was forced to close his eyes again and clamp his hands over his face to block out the light.

"Yurio, you're awake!" Yurio could hear Phichit say. Yurio's hands were still over his face, and knowing that he'd have to get up eventually, he dared to crack open the shield that his fingers formed by the tiniest bit. He almost shrunk back because of the sunlight that was streaming into the room, but he decided to brave the light. He drew back his hands even more, and he rapidly blinked as his eyes struggled to adjust to the absence of darkness.

"You okay? You look terrible," Phichit noted.

That caused for Yurio to growl and point at the mirror in front of him, "Yeah, not like I haven't noticed that already. What time is it?"

"It's eight in the morning. I've been awake since six, though, and Otabek got up a little while before you did," Phichit explained.

"If you got up at six, why didn't you go back to sleep?" Yurio finally slid his hands completely off of his face to let the light in, and he rested his body on his outstretched palms. He used the backboard of the bed as a support, too, him having not felt this groggy since he was a child.

"Because... I went out and got this to make finding Yuuri and Victor easier!" Phichit stepped aside, revealing something that Yurio hadn't noticed before. Yurio's jaw dropped to the floor. Sitting in front of him were computers, monitors, and surveillance equipment. It then clicked inside of Yurio's head that there were screens all over the room, too many of them for him to count, and they displayed locations that were all over Hasetsu. There were also three rolling chairs in the middle of all the screens and wires, causing for the hotel room they were sharing to look more like a super-villain's lair, and Yurio strangely felt like a bad-ass because of the current state of the room.

"How did you afford this?!" gravity threatened to tip Yurio off the bed when he whipped his body around to view all the equipment Phichit had gotten. "Why do we need all of this, and do you even know how to use it?!" Yurio didn't say it, but something also felt kind of shady about all this equipment. Was it even legal for them to spy on the general public just to capture cute pictures of two people?

"Well, I know this guy who deals with computers, so I rented this equipment from him, plus, he agreed to give me a massive discount if I let him see the Shipping On Ice post I'm going to make in a few days!" Phichit looked pretty proud of himself, even puffing out his chest as he explained everything to Yurio, and all Yurio could do for the next few minutes was stare at the screen and monitors and whatnot in disbelief.

"You know," Yurio was ready to face-palm, "there's something about this that makes it feel illegal."

"I know, I had the same reaction when I first woke up, too," Yurio turned to see Otabek stepping out of the bathroom. He looked much better than he did last night, and Yurio decided that it was a good idea to get out of bed, shower, and brush his teeth. As he slid himself off the bed, Yurio trampled over the bed-sheets and nearly lost his balance, and he still felt kind of unsteady on his feet.

As Yurio walked to the bathroom, his gait wobbly, Phichit exclaimed, "Oh, and I packed some portable surveillance equipment, too; it's in the duffel-bags by the door, if you're wondering. I got three bags, one for each of us!"

"Alright, jeez, you'd think that that's a bit overkill," Yurio shook his head on his way to the bathroom. He still couldn't believe that his secret had been discovered, nor could he believe that Otabek ran one of the most famous anime analysis websites on the internet. He was in a daze, to be honest, and it must've shown. Yurio figured that his shock for the situation was the cause of his tiredness and awful bedhead.

Yurio went into the bathroom, quickly brushed his teeth, washed his face with no more than a few wipes of water and a tiny chip of soap, and stumbled tiredly out of the bathroom to get dressed. As he was putting his jacket on, he turned his head to check if Phichit had packed the duffel-bags. Yurio let his joints loosen when he saw that the bags were actually there. As silly as it sounded, those bags reassured him in a way that Phichit and Otabek weren't conspiring to embarrass him by gaining his trust and exposing his shipping habits to the world, and it also gave him more proof that this wasn't all one big ploy to trick him. Yeah, he knew that it sounded ridiculous and that Otabek and Phichit weren't the type of people who did that sort of stuff, but paranoia was something that he had carried with him for his entire life, even when it came to things outside of shipping.

Yurio got dressed without another word, Phichit fiddled around with the equipment he had rented, and Otabek was combing his hair. Yurio couldn't help but realize that there was this crushing weight on him, and he knew why. He wasn't used to this. He wasn't used to people treating him as a friend. It had always been a competition, a race, a confrontation in his past interactions, and even after meeting Otabek, the feeling of having someone he could call his friend was foreign and strange. It was-

Phichit interrupted Yurio's string of thoughts by jumping in front of him, a pair of sunglasses and a sunhat in his hands.

Yurio immediately knew what Phichit was doing. Yurio had made it extremely clear that he didn't want anyone knowing that he was in Japan, so Phichit must've taken that into consideration. It felt pretty nice that Phichit had actually considered things from Yurio's point of view and had the empathy to get him the disguise.

"You might need this," Phichit put the sunhat on Yurio's head and slid the sunglasses on, causing for Yurio to nod in appreciation. "Let's hope no one recognizes you, eh?" Phichit pulled out a tube of lipstick, too, but Yurio declined.

"Yeah, let's hope," Yurio nodded. "Hey, could I borrow one of your jackets or something?" Yurio slid the jacket he had put on off, and Phichit went to his luggage, which was sitting on the other side of the room, and dug around his suitcase.

"This is perfect!" Phichit pulled out a lilac jacket that looked to be way too big for Yurio. Yurio didn't question where Phichit had gotten it, though. Phichit was Phichit. That was the only explanation Yurio needed.

"It'll do," Yurio said as Phichit threw the jacket across the room at him. Yurio grabbed it, feeling grateful for Phichit's gesture of understanding, and he slipped the jacket on. "If anyone asks who I am, I'm your cousin's girlfriend, and if anyone questions my voice, say that I have a cold. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Phichit flashed Yurio a thumbs up, and Otabek set down his comb on the drawer.

"Ready to go?" Otabek inquired.

"Yeah," Yurio and Phichit replied simultaneously, and one by one, they filed out the room with Otabek agreeing to carry the duffel-bags.

* * *

"It's so cool that you know how to ride a motorcycle!" Phichit was running around the motorbike rental shop, since they needed some mode of transportation other than walking if they were to find Yuuri and Victor, and he was checking out all of the motorbikes as if he was a curious child.

Yurio stood next to Otabek with the sunhat he was wearing pulled carefully over his head. He had to keep adjusting his sunglasses, too, since they were slightly too big for his face. However, having at least something to hide his face was better than nothing, so Yurio couldn't complain too much about the sunglasses being too big. He was lucky enough that he had something to hide his identity with in the first place.

Otabek had a motorcycle back in Kazakhstan, but since it was impractical to bring a motorcycle with him when flying to Hasetsu, Otabek was stuck with renting one. They would've rented a minivan, but *cough*Phichit*cough* had spent most of the money he had brought with him on the surveillance equipment. He barely had enough change left to afford things like food for the rest of the week, and even with the money Phichit had, Yurio and Otabek would probably have to chip in at one point or another to help Phichit afford necessities for the remaining portion of the trip. This greatly annoyed Yurio, and after finding out that Phichit had blown most of his travelling budget on the equipment, Yurio then proceeded to scold Phichit for a solid half hour about not being so impulsive.

Plus, even if Otabek and Yurio combined the limited cash they had brought along for the trip, as they hadn't taken into account this huge shipping quest or its apparently massive price-tag when packing, they weren't even close to being able to afford the minivan. So, the three of them were stuck with a motorcycle all week, since it was the cheapest type of vehicle they could get, along with the occasional taxi ride.

As Otabek paid the receptionist, Yurio kept an eye on Phichit to make sure that he didn't break anything. Phichit was so hyped about the shipping quest they were going on that he would've been bouncing off the ceiling if gravity wasn't there to stop him.

"The motorcycle should be available in ten minutes. Please wait here for the time being," the receptionist turned and walked off somewhere.

"Phichit! Calm the fuck down! You're going to fucking break something if you don't stand still!" Yurio pointed to the spot in front of him as a dramatic gesture for Phichit to get back to him and Otabek and sit down in a chair or something to avoid damaging the extremely expensive merchandise that was being rented out. Yurio, and most likely Otabek as well, didn't want to have to cover the expenses of a hyper Phichit.

* * *

Yurio was startled when the sound of the motorcycle's engine roaring suddenly radiated through the air. Luckily, they were able to afford a motorcycle with a sidecar, as Yurio wasn't exactly sure how safe it would be for the three of them if they all piled onto the seat of a single motorcycle, and since Otabek was the only one who knew how to drive the thing, he was sitting in front of Yurio while Yurio was gripping tightly onto his leather jacket. Phichit was in the sidecar, a look of pure giddiness on his face, and Phichit was already taking so many pictures that Yurio was surprised that the camera he was taking those pictures with hadn't run out of storage yet.

The three of them were wearing matching helmets, goggles, and scarves, and in Yurio's opinion, they looked absolutely awesome. With another loud, sudden engine roar, they were off. It was ten o' clock in the morning, and they had a full day's worth of shipping ahead of them. Phichit had even researched all the internet cafes in the general area before they left the hotel, just in case they needed some wi-fi, and he had his computer out and ready.

They drove off into the street with Phichit squealing that he had never been in a sidecar of a motorcycle before, and Yurio hugged Otabek's waist as he felt the wind rip through his hair and clothes. The wind slapped against his face, and for some reason, he felt free. Even though their adventure had only just begun, it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He was here, with people who had the kindness to treat him like a friend, and Yurio could even feel a fondness for Phichit developing. He cradled his head against Otabek's back, and the vibrating of the motorbike was calming to him.

He had this warm, fuzzy feeling inside of him, and Yurio enjoyed the sensation of Otabek's hair brushing up against his face. He even tolerated Phichit's insistent chatting. They rode off into the morning, with Yurio wondering just what this week had in store him, Otabek, and Phichit.


	4. We Were Born to Ship Victuuri!

**Yay for three-day weekends that give me time to write!**

 **Chapter 4 - We Were Born to Ship Victuuri!**

* * *

Yurio sighed as he typed away on his phone. It would've been easier to use the computer Phichit had stashed away in one of the duffel-bags, but if Yurio used a computer, someone would inevitably notice the Victuuri post he was working on for his Facebook, which was basically a worse case scenario type of situation. Phichit and Otabek weren't so anxious to hide their online activities, though, so they were both typing with their computers out in the open. Otabek didn't really show his face online that often, and photos of his face relating to his theorist account and website were hard to come by, even allusive. However, Otabek didn't seem the least bit embarrassed by his tendency to ship people, and for that, Yurio was secretly jealous, just like he was with Phichit.

Yurio didn't have too much time to focus on his jealousy or his embarrassment over what he did in his free-time, though. Currently, they were in some random internet cafe trying to track down where Yuuri and Victor were. The manager of the cafe had threatened them a few times that if they didn't put away all the equipment they were using and order something off the damn menu, they'd get kicked out. Phichit was noticeably terrified of the manager, but one glare from Yurio, even one from behind those large, thick, ridiculous-looking sunglasses, quickly silenced her. He didn't want to give her such a terrifying, nightmare-fueling look, but she was trying to shoo them away with a broom as if they were mice, so Yurio figured that his glare was justified.

Phichit swiped through the iPad he was holding, desperately trying to find a camera that had footage of Victor and Yuuri, but he had no luck. Otabek was doing a little bit better and was working on his Divorce Meter post, though he had warned Yurio and Phichit that he wouldn't be able to get very far without more information on the state of Yuuri and Victor's relationship.

Yurio didn't really know what to post, but he, Phichit, and Otabek knew one thing: if you go too long without posting, the internet thinks you're dead. That was the main reason why they had stopped at the internet cafe, really. Sure, they wanted to check and see if Victor and Yuuri were around, but they needed to post some sort of message to prevent their funeral proceedings from blowing up on social media. Plus, Phichit had been using his 4G so heavily for the past few days that it had run out for the month.

Phichit and Otabek had already made their posts that confirmed they weren't dead, but Yurio had a bit of trouble coming up with something. His fingers were rapidly tapping on the screen as he worked on his Victuuri post, unsure of what he should post as a status update. Whenever he logged onto his DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips account, he always had to think these things through. His shipping account could have no association with his in real life self, so Yurio always had to be careful about what he posted on there.

Yurio had nearly gotten himself exposed a few times, too, like when he almost accidentally posted something meant for his shipping account on his regular account or when he nearly sent out an angry status update that was meant for his regular account on his shipping account .

It was a dangerous business to secretly be a shipper, if he did say so himself.

Finally, Yurio decided to post a Victuuri-fanboy status on his shipping account, ensuring his followers that he was alive and well.

"You done with your status update yet?" Phichit asked as he closed his computer. Yurio nodded.

"We should probably get out before the manager calls the police on us, too," Otabek added, and he used his thumb to point towards the fuming manager, who was giving them a death-stare over her shoulder.

Both Yurio and Phichit nodded, and from Yurio's point of view, Phichit looked like he was about to faint from the manager's incessant, beady eyes. Before you could blink, Phichit threw all the surveillance equipment into the duffel-bags, and all three of them snaked out just as the manager pulled out her phone. They practically parkour-ed their way onto the rented motorcycle that they had parked outside, not even bothering to put on their helmets until after the motorbike was up and running.

The manager screaming behind them that they were banned from the cafe for life while Phichit, jammed in the sidecar of the motorcycle, took out a list labeled "List of Internet Cafes We Can go to" and struck one of the names out, saying, "Well, I guess that's another location where I'm banned for life."

"You've been banned for life from other places before?" Yurio couldn't see Otabek's facial expression, but based on what he had said and his tone of voice, Otabek likely would've been face-palming if he wasn't steering the motorcycle.

"Well, the thing is..." Phichit sheepishly chuckled, his head tilted down in shame.

* * *

"Alright, let's see," Phichit was standing in front of one of those huge public maps that you could find at bus-stops, and Yurio and Otabek were behind him. Otabek had his face behind a map while Yurio was busy trying to hide his own face. Yurio was getting increasingly paranoid as the morning progressed, and the fact that Phichit and Otabek were two world-famous skaters, which was bound to attract the paparazzi, didn't help.

Otabek had kept a careful eye out for anyone sneaking around and taking photos of him, Yurio, and Phichit, and Yurio, against his better judgement, thanked him multiple times for that. For the several times Otabek did catch someone following them, he gently ushered Yurio behind something that would block any view the paparazzi had of him, such as a building or flower-cart.

"So Victor and Yuuri have allegedly been seen here, here, here, here," Phichit continued saying 'here' every time he put a small piece of masking tape on the plastic map in front of him. He reassured Otabek and Yurio that he'd take the pieces of tape off before they left, but when he said that, Yurio and Otabek shot each other glances that said, "You think he's gonna remember to do that?"

"Huh, look at this, sightings of the two lovebirds cluster around here," Phichit pointed to a location on the map where there was a large, circular cluster of tape pieces, but the middle of the circle didn't have any tape.

"But why would they be there?" Yurio asked. It looked like their hiding spot had worked, too, because nobody saw them in the location that was at the center of the tape cluster.

Otabek turned on his 4G and searched up the location Phichit had pointed out on the map, "Well, it says here that there aren't many people there, and it looks like their target demographic, judging from their website, is older people who probably haven't heard of Victuuri or even Victor and Yuuri in general, so it'd make sense that while there're plenty of Victor and Yuuri sightings around the area, nobody notices them when they're actually at the location Phichit pointed out."

They nodded and jumped back onto the motorbike after putting on their awesome-looking helmets, scarves, and goggles, and Otabek drove them off to their desired location.

 _"Yup, he forgot to take the tape pieces off,"_ Yurio thought to himself.

* * *

"Huh, we should go to the nail salon together more often," Phichit hummed. He was sitting down at a table with his palms parallel to its surface. A nail technician sat across from him and was holding his right hand up, and Yurio and Otabek were to Phichit's left, also getting their nails done.

"So this is the place the piggy and bumbling idiot go to in order to hide from the paparazzi?" Yurio thought out loud and turned his head towards Phichit.

"If I plotted out the locations on the map correctly, then apparently so," Phichit shrugged.

"What do we do now, though?" Yurio questioned.

"Guess we just wait, they should show up sooner or later," Phichit turned his neck as far as he could without disrupting the job that was being done on his nails and looked at the door, where there was no sign of Victor or Yuuri.

The nail salon they were at was actually kind of nice, too, but Yurio was still kind of surprised that Victor and Yuuri had chosen this as a hide-out location, even with its calming interior. The walls were a comforting brown, the floor was made up of perfectly polished tile, and there were bamboo plants and sweet-smelling flowers hanging all over the place. The front desk even had a small, frog-shaped fountain with a bamboo shoot growing out of its mouth sitting on it. Soft forest sounds and bird-chirps played in the background, and while those sounds were barely detectable, it definitely made Yurio let go of any anxiety that had been festering during the morning.

Yurio had always wanted to go to a nail salon, but his pride always prevented him. Now that he was technically on a vacation of some sort, though, he didn't feel quite as embarrassed. He was getting a leopard print design painted on his nails, and the friendly, seemingly nonjudgmental nail technician even agreed to paint a tiny chibi tiger head on his left thumbnail. Yurio was absolutely ecstatic about the tiger.

Next to him, Phichit was getting hot pink out of all colors painted on his nails, and, surprisingly, even Otabek was having his nails painted midnight blue with an ombré effect. And, unlike the internet cafe fiasco that had happened earlier, the nail salon people agreed to let the three of them stay for the day. One of the employees said that they didn't get a lot of customers, anyway, and the owner, who was a nice, gray-haired woman who wore a pale pink sweater with stitched flowers, said that she enjoyed the company.

That was how, after paying for their manicures, Yurio, Phichit, and Otabek found themselves and their electronic equipment sprawled out on the tile floor as they monitored the area for any signs of Yuuri and Victor. There weren't a lot of customers, and although a few of the occasional customers that passed by gave them odd looks (Yurio wasn't sure if it was because of their nails, the surveillance equipment, or both), they were mostly ignored. The old lady that owned the salon even offered them some mini teacakes, and after a breakfast-less morning since they were so eager to begin their shipping quest ASAP, they were more than happy to accept a plate full of steaming, frosted sweets. The teacakes were either red velvet, lemon, or chocolate flavored, and they had candied flowers on top of them. He'd kill if anyone found out, but Yurio thought that the candied flowers were adorable.

As Yurio stuffed a cake into his mouth, the crumbs somehow ending up in his hair and the headset he was wearing, he kept his face close to his screen. Yurio was able to take his uncomfortable hat and sunglasses off, too, since there was virtually no chance of anyone recognizing him due to the secluded location and older clientele that weren't up to date with the media's fixation on the Russian skater.

That was when Otabek, who was sitting next to Yurio, smiled as he bit into his teacake, "You know, you look kind of cute with that tiger painted on your thumb."

A smile subconsciously drifted its way onto Yurio's lips, and his face turned red (again). Yurio knew he must've looked like an idiot, but he couldn't help it. He didn't know what Otabek was doing to him! His face still the color of a cherry, Yurio let his mouth hang a bit, unsure of what to say.

Otabek cutely tapped Yurio on the nose, making a 'booping' sound as he did so, and he tucked a stray stand of hair behind Yurio's ear. He then went back to monitoring his screen, not realizing Yurio's inner turmoil because the Russian had grown so good at hiding these things, and Yurio could only sit there, speechless and with everyone oblivious to what was racing through his head.

Yurio looked at Phichit for help, but he was just fanboying and melting into a puddle of excited squeals. That was to be expected, though. Phichit always fanboyed when two people that were part of a ship flirted with each other, and Yurio and Otabek's ship had been plastered all over the internet.

Wait... wait... that was when Yurio came to the realization. Was Otabek _flirting_ with him? Flirting? Otabek? FLIRTING?! OTABEK?! **FLIRTING?! OTABEK?! FLIRTING?! OTABEK?! FLIRTING?! OTABEK?!** No matter how many times Yurio repeated the two words in his head, they just didn't seem to click together. It was so unlike Otabek to flirt. Yurio thought that Otabek out of all people would be the least likely to flirt...

Wait... wait, wait, wait. That was when Yurio registered that this behavior wasn't usual for Otabek _at all_. In the past, Yurio had just brushed them off as friendly gestures, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like Otabek had actually been flirting with him.

There was this one time at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, where after the competition, after Yurio's senior debut, and after his subsequent victory and record-breaking technical score, he and Otabek were spending their last day in Spain. They had decided to skip the after-party out of the fear that Yuuri would get drunk again and challenge Yurio to a humiliating dance-off. Lucky, though, they heard via social media that Yuuri had avoided the champagne and danced with Victor instead.

Still, it was best if they avoided the party, anyway, since the both of them weren't big fans of the banquet that was thrown after the Grand Prix, and with the competition results still fresh on their minds, they had decided to take a late-night motorcycle ride.

Otabek was doing that same nose-tapping he had done in the nail salon, and he had been holding Yurio's hand or elbow the entire time. While watching the sunset from atop some random building, they were exchanging cute nicknames, and Otabek had his arm wrapped around Yurio's shoulder with Yurio leaning on him. Otabek commented on how the scene was not unlike one you would find in a cheesy romance movie, and they laughed at the joke.

Then there was also this other time when they were texting each other. It was during the off season and had happened late at night, or at least it was late at night in Russia. Yurio wasn't so sure what time it was in Kazakhstan, though. Over text, they told each other jokes, bragged about their video-game high-scores, and sent each other a lot of kissing and heart emojis.

Yurio didn't think much of it at the time, but when he looked back on it now, he internally chastised himself for not picking up on it sooner.

And then there were Otabek's gentle touches throughout the trip, the concern he had showed Yurio during his mini-crisis after he was caught on his shipping account, and his pleasant smiles directed towards him.

Holy shit. Otabek was flirting with him.

Yurio didn't know what to say. He kind of liked Otabek, too, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for a relationship. He was still a moody, angsty teen, and it felt as if his moodiness would last forever. There was also figure-skating and the fact that he and Otabek lived in different countries and how unstable Yurio was-

Suddenly, Phichit interrupted Yurio's tense mood with a, "Guys! Guys! Look! It's them, it's them!" Phichit pointed at the screen, got up from his position on the floor, and grinned so widely that it almost resembled Victor's heart-shaped smile. Speaking of which...

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! They're here! I can't believe it! We were actually right!" Phichit had tears of joy flowing down his face. Then, his grin dropped, "Wait, holy crap, they're gonna find us out if they see all this stuff AND Yurio. Hey, Yurio, didn't you say something about how if anyone finds out that you're here, Yakov'll come and drag you back kicking and screaming?"

"SHIT!" Yurio screamed as he watched the live recording of Victor and Yuuri approaching the salon. "Where're the hat and sunglasses?! They're gonna find out that I'm here, Yakov's gonna know, and my life'll be over!"

"Here!" Phichit threw the sunglasses, jacket, and sunhat in Yurio's direction. As Yurio hurriedly put on the disguise, Phichit scrambled around. He put the equipment away at such a frantic pace that any onlookers would've been convinced that if Phichit didn't pack all the equipment away by the time Victor and Yuuri arrived, everyone in a ten-mile radius would die or something equally as horrible. The owner just looked on, a confused and slightly worried expression on her face, and she awkwardly shuffled away as Otabek shot her an apologetic look.

Yurio thought that perhaps he could run to the back really quickly to avoid Victor and Yuuri seeing him altogether, but it was too late. With a ring of the bell attached to the door, Victor and Yuuri entered the building. Like Yurio, they were wearing facial-obscuring clothing, which included two pairs of matching sunglasses, a baseball cap to hide Victor's silver hair, and a large, blue coat for Yuuri and an Iron Man jacket for Victor.

Yurio, Phichit, and Otabek knew Yuuri and Victor well enough to recognize them immediately, though, and for once in his life, Yurio hoped that Victor's terrible memory and abysmal facial recognition skills applied to this situation, or so god help him since the universe just loved to troll him so much.

"Victor! Yuuri!" Phichit waved while Yurio hunched his back over. Yurio turned away from Victor and Yuuri, but he didn't turn away so much that the turn looked unnatural. Yurio was shaking as if the temperature of the room had suddenly dropped. He partially hid himself behind Otabek, and because he was avoiding eye-contact with Victor and Yuuri, he couldn't really see the situation that was unfolding in front of him.

However, he did notice a shaky nervousness to Phichit and Otabek's voices.

"Otabek! Phichit! We didn't expect to see you here," Victor approached them, completely oblivious that his former rink-mate was standing right in front of him.

"How are you two?" Otabek asked in his usual deadpan, but his words were trembling.

"Pretty good, actually, it's just that fans have been following us everywhere, so we usually come here to hide out," Yuuri replied.

"So how's your marriage?" Yurio could hear Phichit say, and if he wasn't trying to remain discrete, he would've yelled at Phichit for being such an idiot. They were only a few steps away from stalking Victor and Yuuri for more Victuuri content to post on the internet, so bringing up their engagement wasn't going to do their epic shipping quest any favors. Plus, Victor and Yuuri would probably avoid the three of them for a while if they discovered how stalker-y they actually were with their epic shipping quest, and if that happened, not only would Yurio's life be over, but Yuuri and Victor avoiding him meant that he wouldn't get the full range of satisfaction from kicking both of their asses at the next Grand Prix Final.

"Still engaged," Victor held up his ring. He then sighed, a sad undertone to his normally cheery voice, "Unfortunately, Russia _still_ doesn't allow same-sex marriage, and it's very limited in Japan, remember? So, unfortunately, we're not legally recognized as a married couple. Yet. But... saying that..." Victor's famous heart-shaped grin appeared on his face, and he wrapped an arm around Yuuri's shoulders and kissed him on the cheek, "I'm willing to wait an eternity for mine and Yuuri's wedding if necessary! Granted, it'd be great if we could get married tomorrow, but I guess a lot of the world still needs to get used to the concept."

Phichit leaned in close to Yurio and whispered, his voice barely louder than a pin dropping, "Make up an excuse to leave so that you can take pictures. And record some video, too!"

Yurio tried to make his voice sound more high-pitched and made an attempt at toning down his Russian accent, and he said in a hushed voice, "Um, excuse me, Phichit, I have to use the restroom."

"Oh, who're you?" Victor asked the dreaded question.

Fortunately for Yurio, Phichit and Otabek jumped in to save him.

"H-he- I mean she, is my... cousin's girlfriend!" Phichit's voice didn't sound all that convincing, but it looked like Victor and Yuuri had bought it.

"Yes, she's very shy and doesn't like to talk much, so it's best that you leave her alone," Otabek continued what Phichit had just said. "They've only been dating for a short time, so you probably haven't seen her before. She'd been wanting to visit Japan for a long time, and Phichit and I were travelling to Japan, so..."

"Well, tell her that she's welcome to the hot-spring inn my family runs any time." Yurio mentally cursed Yuuri's niceness.

 _"Why do you have to be so fucking friendly?!"_ Yurio internally screamed at Yuuri.

"I-I'll be going off to the bathroom now," Yurio stuttered. Yurio walked to the hallway in the back that had a restroom sign over it, and along the way, he checked his pocket to make sure that he had his phone. When he was in the back and behind the hallway, Yurio pulled out his phone and zoomed in as much as he could.

He took a few pictures, recorded a video of Victor stating that he wanted to stay with Yuuri forever, waited for a little while to make his fake bathroom trip more convincing, and returned just as Phichit and Otabek were explaining that they had to leave to make it in time for a bus.

They led Yurio out, and as they stepped outside, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"That was a close one; we really should plan these photo-taking and video-shooting sessions better," Otabek said in hindsight.

"Probably, we'll plan what we do next once we get back to the hotel," Phichit wiped away the sweat that had gathered on his forehead. "Hold on, just let me make a quick call."

Yurio watched Phichit open up his contacts list and press a button that had some name on it that he didn't understand. Phichit then started pacing around and apologizing profusely, mentioning their epic shipping quest and all that stuff, but Yurio let himself relax when Phichit didn't mention his name.

"You think that's his cousin?" Otabek whispered over to Yurio.

Yurio jumped and answered in a hushed voice, "I think so."

When Phichit ended the call after being yelled at for a solid ten minutes, he smiled tiredly and pointed to the motorcycle, "Let's go... sorry about that, I had to apologize to my cousin since he already has a girlfriend, and I didn't want him to be mad at me for causing drama in their relationship."

"I think he got mad at you anyway," Yurio massaged his temples as he felt a headache coming on.

With that, they piled onto the motorcycle, Otabek saying nothing of the flirty exchange they had had earlier. It made Yurio feel weird, and not in a good way. Yurio grunted as the motorbike started gaining speed. He didn't want for the entire trip to be him contemplating Otabek, but at the same time, he felt like he had to sort through all these emotions that were bubbling up. Otabek probably liked him, based on the why he was treating Yurio, but Yurio... was he ready to admit that he liked Otabek back, even to himself? He looked at Otabek, who had been quiet so far, and he sighed, feeling weird with his arms wrapped around Otabek's waist.

Just what the hell was going on?

* * *

 **Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? (Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, but if you didn't, it's completely fine; everyone has their own preferences) I had a blast writing this chapter, especially the manicure Yurio, Phichit, and Otabek had. I'm not that good at writing relationship drama, though, so tell me if the Yurio/Otabek situation needs a little work. Otabek's flirting with Yurio, but he's just too shy to say anything!**

 **Other than that, have a nice day, and please review, favorite, follow, etc. if you'd like. I'm begging you! I like to know that I'm not just writing to a bunch of ghosts, and I really appreciate it when people drop a review after the work that goes into a chapter!**


	5. Let's Break the Internet, Shall We?

**Chapter 5 - Let's Break the Internet, Shall We?**

* * *

Yurio awoke to the sound of a computer beeping. His eyes snapped open, and he jolted up out of bed with a start. As his nerves settled down from being startled, Yurio looked around the room in an attempt to find the source of the noise, and based on the digital clock next to him, it was long before the butt-crack of dawn. This annoyed Yurio greatly because he despised having to wake up earlier than he had to, especially after a long day like yesterday.

Yesterday, in between almost getting recognized by Yuuri, Victor, and the general public and wrestling with his feelings concerning Otabek, Yurio was scrambling around town with Phichit to chase down Yuuri and Victor. Otabek, by using the equipment Phichit had rented, had stayed at an internet cafe that day to watch the two of them scamper around Hasetsu, and he was responsible for working on his Divorce Meter post and doing most of the editing for the Victuuri collab they were working on.

After that hell of a day, Yurio remembered nothing more than the world fading to black as soon as he plopped onto the hotel's bed with Otabek, and that was how he found himself here, exhausted, paranoid, and wondering where that pinging noise had came from.

"Eh...?" Yurio looked around to see what was going on. It was pretty dark, but even so, he could still see the form next to his rise and fall as it breathed, indicating that Otabek was still fast asleep. That meant that Phichit was the only other person who could've been awake. Sure enough, Yurio found Phichit sitting in one of the rolling chairs at the center of the room, a computer in his lap and earbuds loosely dangling from his head.

"Phichit? Aren't you tired?" Yurio asked, surprised and too exhausted to come up with an angry remark about Phichit waking him up.

"A bit groggy, but check this out!" Phichit waved his hand to invite Yurio over. Yurio didn't want to get out of bed, so he did what any sleepy teenager would do and just lied back down.

"Please?" Phichit whined, albeit quietly since Otabek was still sleeping. "I'm pretty proud of it, to be honest! And I'm trying to work on how we should tell everyone that we're doing a three-way collab! The internet's going to have a melt-down over this, so we have to ease all of our followers into the whole situation gently!" Phichit said that last sentence in a matter-of-factly tone, causing for Yurio to internally cringe as his eyes closed and encompassed him in the comforting, warm darkness of sleep.

"Show me when I spring back to life in three hours," Yurio mumbled, his face already buried back into the sheets. He shifted his weight to his stomach and pressed himself flat against the bed, his forehead narrowly missing the pillow in front of him. He could've spent an extra two seconds to get his face onto the pillow, but it was too early in the morning for him to start trying. Phichit continued whining for a few more minutes, but luckily, he eventually gave up and resumed editing whatever he was working on, all while Otabek had managed to sleep through the entire exchange.

Finally, he could get some-

"Oh, good morning, Yurio. I didn't think that you'd be awake by now," Otabek's calm, stoic voice interrupted Yurio's thought before it could even finish. Yurio turned towards Otabek, who was smiling softly like he often did.

"You're awake!" Phichit exclaimed, and Yurio sensed a noticeable spike of thrill within his voice. Phichit clapped his hands together and grinned from ear to ear, "Great, now that Otabek's awake, the two of you can see the video I edited! I'm hoping to get some feedback, too. I won't post it until next week, but I want for the both of you to be satisfied with it, since it is a three-way collab!"

Yurio groaned. This was going to be a long morning, and to make matters worse, as far as he was concerned, morning hadn't even begun yet.

* * *

"Yuuri~" Victor sang aloud into Yuuri's ear. Yuuri was lying in bed and on his side, his body curled up into the fetal position. However, despite the fact that it was early, dark, and the sun hadn't even begun to rise yet, Victor was sitting next to Yuuri with his eyes showing no signs of tiredness.

"Huh?" Yuuri slowly opened his eyes, but they were hesitant to let go of sleep. Yuuri looked at the digital clock that was sitting on the nightstand, indicating his suspicions that it was ridiculously early. Victor often woke up before he did, but even factoring that into things, the time was still ridiculous. Yuuri moaned in slight irritation, "Come on, it's like, what? Three, almost four in the morning? Go back to sleep. We'll walk Makkachin together this morning, promise, but not this early."

Just as Yuuri was about to go back to sleep, Victor shook Yuuri gently. It wasn't a particularly strong shake, but it was just enough to grab Yuuri's attention once again. "What?" Yuuri was a bit more annoyed than last time. It was kind of unusual for Victor to be like this, too, because he normally left Yuuri alone when it came to sleep, at least until it was time for Makkachin's walk, and this was definitely not time for Makkachin's walk. In fact, Makkachin was at the foot of the bed, snoozing without a care in the world and making Yuuri jealous because he was actually getting some sleep.

They had only arrived home from a four-hour practice session about thirty minutes ago. Again, it was to avoid the fans because even the most die-hard fans usually didn't have it in them to stay up so late. Yuuri and Victor's sleep cycles had been thrown slightly out of wack, but with that as a trade-off, the avoidance of fans and journalists was worth it. So, it'd only make sense for Yuuri to very much mind Victor getting in between him and his sleep.

"You won't believe this!" Yuuri sighed when he heard _that_ voice, or more specifically, Victor's excited voice. It was Victor's very, extremely, bouncing off the fucking walls excited voice, and Yuuri knew that there was no escape.

"Remember when I told you about Shipping On Ice, DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, and The Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop Culture?!" Victor was lightly bouncing on the bed, causing for it to creak softly, and Yuuri nodded. The three names Victor had mentioned were pretty much the three most famous shipping accounts on the internet, particularly when it came to shipping him and Victor. Yuuri felt kind of odd whenever he scrolled through those accounts, since anyone would feel odd if their relationship was documented that heavily, but he'd grown used to them by now. Besides, he knew that two out of those three accounts were run by his friends, Phichit and Otabek, so he had to let it slide whether he liked it or not.

"Yeah, I remember, what about them?" Yuuri yawned.

"They're doing a three-way collab and posting it next week! And they're all in the same location! Do you know how allusive DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips is?! The person who runs the account won't even show their face, so any collab with DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips is legendary! Phichit announced that which ship the collab is about is a surprise, but I'm so excited!" Victor continued to talk on and on, but the first sentence he had said burned its way into Yuuri's ears.

A three-way collab between three legendary shipping accounts?! Yuuri felt himself shake when he thought about it. The internet had flipped out enough when DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips and The Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop Culture (that name was so long that it wasn't even funny) had announced that they were working together on a post, so with the three-way collab... Yuuri gulped down a lump of anxiety in his throat. This...

This was going to break the internet.

With that, he screamed, and while Victor looked as excited as ever, Yuuri could see outside his window that the lights of his parents and sister's bedroom had switched on.

* * *

"You're going to be a dead man once Yuuri finds out," Yurio sighed as they were having breakfast in the hotel. He was still in his disguise that consisted of a sunhat and shades, but to prevent anyone from getting suspicious, he hesitantly agreed to wear lip gloss. Phichit's original idea was to have him wear lipstick, but Yurio remembered rejecting the tube of lipstick Phichit had offered him a day ago. It wasn't that Yurio had anything personal against the way lipstick looked, and he didn't have too many qualms about wearing makeup. He had done so many times before for his skating routines. It was just that lipstick felt so sticky and foreign on his lips, and don't even get him started on the nightmare the stick of colored gunk became whenever he ate.

In short, lipstick, and to a lesser extent lip gloss, was uncomfortable on his face. Yes, it kind of sounded like he was whining about this, but he didn't care. Nothing was getting in the way of him eating comfortably, as weird as that sounded, even if it meant putting his disguise in danger. Still, to make the notion that he was Phichit's cousin's girlfriend more convincing, a bit of pink, strawberry-flavored lip gloss went a long way.

That was the other reason why he didn't like putting anything on his lips. Whether it was lipstick or some sort of flavored lip gloss, he hated the taste the lingered in his mouth. It didn't even taste like real strawberry. If the manufacturers were going to make something strawberry flavored, then at least attempt to make the flavor convincing.

For not the first time, though, Phichit's words snapped Yurio out of his mini, angst-filled internal rant that this time was about applying makeup to his lips, "Don't worry too much about it! I've announced the collab, but we're not going to post anything relating to it until next week, so we should be safely out of Japan by then!"

The thought of leaving Japan, of leaving this adventure and this chapter of his shipping career, scared Yurio a little. He didn't want to leave. He didn't want to leave these two people who'd treated him as a friend even though he'd been so snappy the entire time. What would he do once this adventure was over? What would he do with his feelings about Otabek once they went their separate ways? How would he be able to face his rink mates if they ever found out about his shipping obsession? Or if they discovered his little crush on Otabek?

Yurio didn't want to think about, yet those thoughts were there, nudging his synapses at the back of his brain in a grim reminder that this little shipping quest would be over in pretty much an instant.

Shaking his head slightly, Yurio willed himself to reply to Phichit, his usual gruff voice sounding, "You sure about that? You think we'll even have the time to make a collab done on such short notice work?" Yurio propped his head up on his elbow, which was resting on the white tablecloth of the circular table they were sitting at, and there was a small, slender glass vase of carnations in front of him. They were also sitting at a table that had four seats, so there was an extra chair that they had pushed away.

They were, as mentioned earlier, having breakfast in the hotel's dining room, but Yurio could barely touch his scrambled eggs and rice, tormented by thoughts over what to do once their journey was over. Phichit was shoveling food into his mouth with his usual enthusiasm, him having no idea of Yurio's internal struggle, and Otabek, while he did look a bit concerned, silently sipped on his coffee. He didn't appear to be very hungry, either.

Yurio wasn't sure if his silence was because of the awkward flirting they had done yesterday or if it was just Otabek being Otabek, but either way, he wished that Otabek would say something, as he had barely said anything all morning.

As Yurio continued to push his food around on his plate, he started wondering how on earth he had even gotten to this point. Who spontaneously went on crazy shipping quests where you practically stalked your favorite ship, anyway? It was certainly something to brag about if he wasn't so embarrassed over his affinity for shipping, but it didn't stop it from being weird.

"Yuri, are you feeling okay? You're not eating as much as you normally do."

Yurio nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard Otabek speak up for the first time in what felt like forever. "Y-yeah," he replied, not wanting to look at him. "I'm. Fine." He stabbed a bit of egg with his chopsticks before shoving it into his mouth.

"Are you sure?" Otabek asked.

 _"Dammit, stop prying,"_ Yurio almost muttered that under his breath, but he stopped himself just in time. He continued eating, albeit slowly, and Otabek, probably having sensed Yurio's tense mood, returned to his coffee. Phichit could only watch on, eating his breakfast and rapidly typing on his phone as he did so.

With a bit of avocado half-dangling out of his mouth, Phichit decided that it was a good time to take a picture of his half-eaten breakfast with a message explaining to his Instagram followers that he had forgotten to take a picture of it before he ate, and he chuckled nervously, "Hey, you two doing okay?"

Otabek and Yurio turned towards Phichit, and with flat voices, they said, "Fine."

Phichit didn't say much after that.

* * *

"Man, this collab's going viral!" Phichit commented, sounding giddy and excited as always. They, like before, were situated at an internet cafe. This time, since the crowded interior put Yurio at the risk of being recognized, they were sitting outside. They had arrived here on foot, too, because it would draw less attention and save on gas, which helped their already limited traveling budget.

Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people, had heard about the three-way collab, and the internet was having the hugest meltdown since that time where Yuuri and Victor kissed on live, international television for the whole world to see.

Phichit's Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and anything else you could think off were flooded with people asking Phichit if the three-way collab was true, along with the occasional person who begged for Phichit to tell them which ship the collab was about. From breakfast until now, Phichit's announcement of the collaboration had already gained 100,000 retweets, 200,000 likes, and thousands upon thousands of comments.

Yurio knew that their announced collab would go viral the moment Phichit pressed post, but the number of people who had already noticed Phichit's announcement was absolutely mortifying. Yurio couldn't allow for anyone else to discover his love of shipping now; if anyone did, Yurio would definitely become not only the laughing stalk of the figure-skating world but of the rest of the world as well, or at least that was how Yurio pictured it in his head.

The number of people viewing Phichit's post was still climbing at a blindingly quick pace, and because of that, Yurio was putting off checking his social media. Both his shipping and regular accounts would be flooded with messages about the fact that DoubleYourDailyDoseOfShips, Shipping On Ice, and the Contemplation of Anime, Television, and Other Instances of Pop Culture were working together, and he just didn't want to deal with that now.

Plus, even though the internet would probably throw a virtual funeral for him any second now due to his absence, Yurio had abstained from posting anything on his regular social media accounts for the past few days. He couldn't give Yakov any tip-offs about where he had gone off to, so as painful as it was to not be able to post the chibi tiger that was painted on his left thumbnail or that selfie he took while riding on a motorcycle with Otabek and Phichit, Yurio had to keep himself from pressing post.

"That's just scary," was all Otabek could say when he checked the numbers on his social media.

"Well, it was our goal to break the internet, and if this keeps up, us literally breaking the internet doesn't seem too out of the question," Phichit nodded in agreement, though he still had the hugest grin ever on his face.

"But where do we find Victor and Yuuri now? Even though we haven't announced which ship we're doing the collab on, they're probably on edge right now since they always fall victim to these sorts of things," Yurio pointed out.

"Hmm, good point," Phichit leaned back in his seat and scratched his chin. "You think we'll have to split up again like yesterday? We'll cover more ground that way."

"I don't think we have another choice if we want to find Victor and Yuuri," Otabek replied, and Yurio just gave a curt nod. Yurio knew that this was a bad, probably terrible, idea, and that the worse things always happened when a group split up. However, the three of them didn't have many options, since they had already promised to deliver the most epic collab in the history of collabs within less than one week's time.

"Let's see where each of us should go," Phichit pulled a huge map out of seemingly nowhere, and Yurio spent the next few minutes wondering how and where Phichit had even gotten such a map. Phichit slammed the old, crumbly, and slightly holly map on the tabletop, which drove some some dust bunnies up Yurio's nose and made him cough a bit.

When Yurio started playing around with the rim of the jacket he was wearing, Phichit started talking again, and although Phichit was saying a lot, Yurio's brain could only sort out one sentence: Yurio, I think you should go with Otabek just in cause the paparazzi find you.

"WHAT?!" was what Yurio would've said if he wasn't disguising himself as Phichit's cousin's girlfriend and wasn't trying to be as discrete as possible. Instead, he narrowly avoided having his jaw hang, but he was still pretty sure that both Phichit and Otabek could see how the muscles of his jaw were tense. Yurio could even feel lines appear on the corners of his chin because of how much his face was straining.

The suggestion sounded simple enough, and he'd been alone with Otabek before. However, after realizing that Otabek had been flirting with him for solid year and a half, Yurio couldn't help but feel a little different about being alone with Otabek. He didn't want to run Otabek in the wrong direction, though, so he restrained himself from asking Phichit about why he was suddenly so interested in leaving him and Otabek alone together.

Yurio dared to look Phichit in the eye, and what he saw scarred him for life. There was this tiny glimmer of plotting in Phichit's eyes, as if the other skater was planning something, and that look in Phichit's eyes resembled what he looked like when he was going crazy, rabid fanboy because of an adorable ship.

 _"Oh no..."_ Yurio glanced nervously at Otabek, who was apparently oblivious to what Phichit was planning. _"Shit... no... Phichit, you wouldn't... Otabek wouldn't agree-"_

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea," Otabek replied. Dammit, Otabek! Couldn't everyone just let him sulk in his own inner turmoil in peace?! It was then that Phichit sprung out of his seat a little too quickly, and before Yurio could react, he was alone with Otabek. Yurio could see Phichit sprinting off into the distance, a camera and an iPad in his hands, and Yurio made a note to verbally murder Phichit later.

Yurio glanced awkwardly at Otabek, who simply smiled.

"We should probably get going," Otabek scooped up the remaining equipment and piled it into two duffel-bags. He offered to carry both of them, but Yurio insisted on taking on the second bag. He was still too caught up in his internal struggle to pay much attention to the weight of the bag he was now holding, anyway, and Yurio was convinced that his own eyes looked glazed and that he looked quite out of it today.

Otabek seemed to understand because he didn't pry much, and they were off. They walked side by side to each other, and Yurio did his best to successfully sport the ridiculous hat and sunglasses he was wearing, as he was self-conscious of the current state of his appearance. He remembered that one time where he called JJ a douche for wearing sunglasses, too, and as if to teach him of his misdeeds, the universe, in an ironic twist, had him wear an embarrassingly large pair of tinted glasses at this very moment.

Yurio grumbled as they walked, and occasionally, he would produce a grunt or sigh to pair with the grumbles rumbling in his throat. It was more for show than anything else, though. Even if they often had to wait for months in order to see each other, Yurio was more than certain that Otabek was aware of even the acute, seemingly insignificant parts of his personality.

Otabek was also sneaking the odd worried glace at Yurio as they walked because even as Yurio tried his best to maintain the image of his usual, crabby self, it wasn't working. The fact that he was faking his normal behavior was painfully obvious, and he knew it. Otabek knew, too, or at least that was what Yurio assumed, and this was further backed up by the look of pain and contemplation on Otabek's face, indicating that he was thinking about something.

"Otabek, what are you up to?" Yurio raised a thin eyebrow in suspicion. He shoved his hands harshly in his pockets, and he shuffled behind Otabek as Otabek looked around, as if something big was about to happen.

"You'll see," Otabek replied. He gave Yurio a quick, charming smirk, a smirk which made Yurio's face unwillingly turn beet-red, and after that flash of a smile, he gave Yurio a thumbs up and gently grabbed onto Yurio's hand. "I think I have a way to catch Yuuri and Victor."

* * *

 **Okay, okay, I know, I'm so, so, so, so, so so, so, sorry for not updating sooner, but I had a really bad case of writer's block. T-T I'm sorry if there are more mistakes than usual this chapter, but it's because while I was editing, I nearly lost the file, some weird stuff happened, it is two in the morning, and I'm dropping to sleep as soon as I post this.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though, and I hope that it won't take me that long to update again. If you'd like, please review, favorite, follow, etc. because I want to know if you enjoy this story. Goodnight, and don't stay up until two in the morning editing your chapter because you were too stubborn to do it tomorrow, even after some weird stuff happened to your file, like I did. ^^;**


	6. Are You Sure This is Legal?

**Chapter 6: Are You Sure This is Legal?!**

* * *

"What are you planning?!" Yurio was confused as hell, and he scrunched up his nose and knitted his eyebrows together in bewilderment. Otabek had a gentle hold on his hand and was guiding him through the streets of the small town. The two of them stumbled through the crowd and stepped down stone and cement paths, and while Yurio still had a confused look on his face, Otabek looked to be quite pleased with himself.

"I told you; you'll find out eventually," Otabek smirked a little, but it wasn't one of those smirks someone gave when they were up to no good. The little half-smile, half-smirk Otabek had was more playful than anything else, and it made Yurio feel a safe, even as they risked being pinned down by the paparazzi.

"Are we just going to walk up to Victor and Yuuri and start chatting with them?! If we do, I'll risk being recognized!" Yurio exclaimed. He knew that Otabek wouldn't do something as stupid as that, but it never hurt to be too safe.

"Don't worry, I'm not that mean," Otabek chuckled as he tugged Yurio along.

"Just checking," Yurio quickly explained since he didn't want for Otabek to get the wrong idea, and they trudged along the sidewalk and past a few stores and restaurants. The smell of cooking ramen and rice and fish filled Yurio's nose as they strolled along, which made his stomach growl a bit because he didn't eat much that morning, and the voices of vendors and the sounds of people walking and biking filled his ears.

There were so many people around them, and they were so loud and the colors so bright. Yurio winced every time he and someone else's shoulders accidentally brushed, paranoid that someone would figure out who he really was or that Yakov would find him here. He felt kind of self-conscious of holding Otabek's hand, too, because he'd never had feelings for anyone before.

This was all very strange. Yurio was in a paranoid, worried daze as everything and everyone moved around him, and to be honest, it was almost unreal. He'd never been on a shipping quest before, and it felt so weird to have two other people know that he was into anime and shipping. It was even weirder to discover that Otabek was into this stuff as well.

He wasn't sure if it was the strangeness of it all or just the lack of good sleep, but everything around Yurio seemed fuzzy, almost as if he and Otabek were in their own little bubble. It felt like Yurio was viewing the world through a window, as bizarre as that sounded, and despite the utter chaos circling around the two, it was as if he and Otabek were alone, hand in hand, walking lazily and casually down the street.

Yurio was quite curious about the plan Otabek was hatching up as well. Otabek was quiet, a deep thinker, and never really did anything that was too rash, so Yurio wondered how long Otabek had been thinking about this plan of his. Even though Yurio gave his best try towards getting Otabek to reveal what was actually going on in his head, it was no use, and the potential for a surprise frightened Yurio.

This week had been hectic enough as it was, and Yurio didn't need any more chaos in his life. He wondered why he had gone to Japan in the first place, and he thought about why he had met Phichit at the Hasetsu airport. What were the chances of that, anyway? What were the chances of him meeting Phichit that fateful day when he had originally planned to go alone? Yurio had to admit that it was lonely at first. He had thought that he was fighting all by himself, but over the past few days, he discovered that he wasn't, that there were people who didn't judge him for what he did in his free-time and even dared to join in on the insanity.

Yes, this was strange, very strange indeed, and the hot,sunny day and the chatter of the crowd around him weren't helping.

Soon, Yurio found himself situated at a park after a good hour of walking around, and luckily for the two of them, the park wasn't busy. They were in the middle of a sea of wet, emerald-green grass and were sitting on a park bench, their now empty duffel-bags slouched underneath their seats. Otabek was busily typing on a laptop, and Yurio had an iPad in his hands.

"I hope this works," Otabek's eyes chased the images on the screen, and after punching in a few buttons, a smile appeared on his face.

"Okay, care to explain now?" Yurio grumbled as he awkwardly clutched the iPad.

Otabek turned towards Yurio and smiled, "I think I've found them."

"But how?" Yurio twisted his wrists around in a circle to emphasize his point. His eyes widened as Otabek leaned in a little closer, and at this point, Yurio was desperate to figure out what was going through his friend's head.

"Remember how Phichit has a friend that gave him all this equipment for cheap?" Otabek began.

"Yeah," Yurio nodded a bit more aggressively than he had meant to; he was just eager for Otabek to explain his plan.

"Well," Otabek continued, and although the park only had a few families that were running around at least thirty meters away from where they were sitting, the volume of Otabek's voice was in-between a soft conversation and a whisper, "I'm not the only one with a few connections. Since I'm more of a theorist than a shipper, I've gotten in touch with a lot of people to construct my fan theories, so I have quite a network of acquaintances.

I know someone who works in the technology field, and she and her team are developing facial recognition software. She agreed to send me a prototype of it as long as I only share it with you and Phichit, which is why I was kind of dodgy about the subject when you were asking me about everything in such a crowded place. I didn't want to tell you and Phichit about it until now, too, because there was no guarantee that she'd say yes to sending me the software, and even when she did say yes, she made me agree to some things before I shared this information with you. I hope you didn't take it too personally."

"N-no, not at all, I was just wondering why you weren't really answering my questions, since you don't usually beat the bush around like that."

"Thanks for understanding," Otabek smiled once more.

"Yeah, no problem," Yurio nodded. "Anyway, you've found them?"

"Yup!" Otabek sounded excited, even giddy, as he explained to Yurio, "It'd probably be too inefficient to just look through camera footage, so I used the software my friend's working on to look for Victor and Yuuri. It helps her, too, because having me use the software can help her make sure that the coding doesn't have any bugs, and, according to the scan I ran, Yuuri and Victor have a bit of a pattern when they're going around town. They switch locations pretty often, and where they're at tends to be random. However, during the evening, they're near the Ice Castle Rink before disappearing for a few hours, only to reemerge late at night."

"It's oddly convenient that you and Phichit have all these connections," Yurio commented, and he felt odd about Phichit and Otabek having all these connections just from pursuing a hobby. Yes, it was a strange hobby, and it would definitely bring up strange things, but as odd as it sounded, Yurio felt as if he was in an action movie. The cameras, the software, and being just a half step away from stalking Yuuri and Victor was all so absurd. The idea of a shipping quest in itself was so strange and so out there that it felt like a dream.

Suddenly, Yurio's eyes widened as his brain processed what Otabek had said. He swore that he heard his brain buzz, and he felt so stupid for not seeing through all of this.

The realization popped into Yurio's head, hitting him as hard as a falling cinder block, and he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. He felt like such an idiot for not figuring it out sooner! Or course they were at the Ice Castle Rink! Phichit and Otabek didn't know this since they were busy training abroad and away from Japan, but Yurio had been to the rink so many times in the past, when the whole fiasco of Victor and Yuuri's relationship started.

He remembered it clearly. It was a while ago, one-an-a-half, maybe two years back. He was fifteen at the time, and he and Yuuri were in a competition over who Victor was going to coach. Victor had forgotten the stakes of the skating competition (of course he forgot, this was Victor-fucking-forgetful-Nikiforov, after all), and Yurio had lost to Yuuri. It was painful for sure, but Yuuri had definitely kissed his ass when he won gold at the Grand Prix Final that same year, and better yet, he won gold during his first year of competing and at the age of fifteen, something that was unheard of previously.

Fast-forward to now, and Victor and Yuuri were as lovey-dovey as ever, which provided great shipping material, much to Phichit, Yurio, and Otabek's benefit.

"Oi! Why didn't I figure it out sooner?!" Yurio suddenly jumped out of his seat, his hands luckily clamped on his iPad so that it didn't fly off his lap, and he berated himself for a few minutes.

"Figure what out?" Otabek lifted an eyebrow, and he seemed slightly startled by Yurio's outburst. Some passersby looked over their shoulders for a few seconds, most likely out of sheer curiosity for the scene that was currently unfolding, and Yurio couldn't help but blush a little from the embarrassment caused by his mini-freak-out.

"Of course they'd be at Ice Castle Rink during the night! It's closed at the times Yuuri and Victor are going there, but that's the point! They wait until the rink's closed, and if I remember correctly, both of them have keys to the rink so that they can practice any time they want. So, it'd only make sense if they went to the rink at night to practice and to avoid the fans," Yurio sighed, still mad at himself for not putting two and two together sooner.

"Dammit!" Yurio hissed, his hand clenching, and Otabek, being the friend that he was, patted Yurio on the shoulder in an act of comfort after he stood up and set his computer on the park bench.

"Don't beat yourself up about it too much; realizing these things later is better than not realizing them at all," Otabek said in his soothing, calm voice, which relaxed Yurio if only for a second. "But," Otabek continued, "now that we know a location where we can spot Yuuri and Victor on a reliable basis, we have to tell Phichit. And we have to find a way to access Ice Castle, probably some sort of key, since if we sneak in after Victor and Yuuri enter, the door could be locked, or they could notice us entering since it'll be so quiet in there."

"Alright, I'll text Phichit right now," Yurio took his phone out of his pocket, which of course had a cat-themed case and a picture of his cat (don't worry about the cat; she was safely at his grandfather's house) as the screen saver, and he started tapping on the screen to inform Phichit of their new discovery.

Now... how were they going to get the keys? The expression on Otabek's face was making Yurio nervous about the answer, and Phichit's reply to Yurio's text only served to heighten Yurio's anxiety about the shit that was about to go down tonight.

* * *

"Are you sure that this plan is legal?" Yurio felt that the situation called for a simultaneous face-palm, head-slap, and temple massage. Since he only had two hands, though, he decided to go with the two former options he had. He'd give himself a temple massage later, after the whole ordeal of what would happen tonight.

They were back in their hotel room and planning to break into the Ice Castle Rink, sneak around until they got enough Victuuri pictures, and run back to the hotel in the dead of night. It turned out that Yuuri and Victor had a very strong pattern when it came to the timing of their late-night skating practices, and Phichit and Otabek were more than willing to fully exploit it. Yuuri and Victor were almost guaranteed to be at the rink between midnight and one in the morning, which gave them a six-hour window to eat and plan before they carried out their break-in of the skating rink. All three of them had forgotten to eat lunch due to their chase for Yuuri and Victor, too, so it was working out surprisingly well.

"It's fine! Yuuri and Victor are our friends! They'll understand!" Phichit seemed surprisingly nonchalant about committing what was a flat-out crime, and he waved his hand without a care in the world. "Besides, we'll just be 'borrowing' the keys to the ice rink. If we're caught, we'll just say that we needed the rink to practice, that's all!"

Yurio shook his head and did air-quotes was soon as the first syllable of the word "borrowing" left Phichit's mouth.

That didn't really deter Phichit from going on about their plan, though, and he paced around the room in what looked to be excitement, throwing his arms in the air as he paced, "All we have to do is go to the bathhouse Yuuri's family runs, find one of the two copies of the keys Victor and Yuuri have to the Ice Castle Rink, sneak into said rink, and just do a little photography! We'll come back to the bathhouse after we take the pictures and say that we left something behind, they'll let us in, and we'll return the key to where we got it from! What can go wrong?"

"Many, many things can go wrong, and it doesn't take half a brain to figure out what those things are," Yurio rolled his eyes. He never imagined that he'd be the voice of reason, especially since Otabek was around, but Otabek didn't appear to have too many hangups about the plan, which made Yurio all the more paranoid that they'd get caught. If they did get caught, what kind of career-ending headline would circulate around the news first? The options swirled around his head, all of them there so that Yurio could worry even more than before.

"If you're worried, just think of it as a surprise photo-shoot!" Phichit gave Yurio's back a reassuring slap, causing for Yurio to wince. It was less from the pain and more so from how relaxed Phichit seemed about the whole thing. Yurio wasn't too sure about how Otabek felt about this, though, and frankly, Yurio didn't want to know.

"Well, now that that's figured out, let's go and have dinner!" Phichit suggested, and just as he said that, Yurio's stomach grumbled.

"Says the person who used up all the money they brought with them on unnecessary camera equipment!" Yurio crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, although, after that stomach grumble, he realized how hungry he actually was. Well, it was more like hangry, to put it into better terms.

"Don't worry, I'll pick up part of Phichit's bill, but he owes me the next time we meet," Otabek offered.

"I-it's fine, I can help, too," Yurio stammered, and even if he didn't intend to admit it, he didn't want for Phichit's budget problem to fall onto Otabek alone.

"That's awfully kind," Otabek smiled at Yurio, and to avoid embarrassment, Yurio hid his blush behind his jacket. "So where do you two want to go? I'm not in the mood for anything in particular, so where we eat is up to you two."

"There's a good Korean barbecue place around the street, maybe we could go there. I know it doesn't beat actually going to Korea, but I heard that it's pretty good," Phichit suggested.

"Hmm... that might be too close to the hotel, though, which could increase the chances of Yurio being found out," Otabek said after thinking for a little while, and Yurio nodded in agreement despite the fact that he just wanted to get to a restaurant so that they could have dinner.

"How about the sushi place that's a few miles away? We can ride the motorcycle there!" Phichit was already halfway out the door and had put on his helmet somewhere in between suggesting sushi and setting a foot out of the room.

"Eh, it doesn't sound terrible," Yuri shrugged, and he too put his helmet on. He put on the sunhat that Phichit had given him, too, just in case. He knew that he looked even more ridiculous than before. However, knowing about something and caring about that same thing are two very different state of minds, and he honestly couldn't find the energy to give a shit. He was just hungry and tired, and he needed food in him _now_.

"Alright," Otabek grabbed the motorcycle keys from the counter that held the TV within the room, and he also checked his pockets to make sure that he hadn't forgotten the keys to the room. After locking the door to the room, they were out, and after paying an overly-expensive valet parking fee, they were off.

Yurio tried his best to hold onto Otabek's back so that he didn't fly off the motorcycle, along with the hat and sunglasses disguise he was wearing, and the fact that his sunhat was struggling to fit around his motorcycle helmet wasn't helping. They made it to the sushi restaurant, though, and when they sat down and were handed menus, Yurio couldn't have been happier. He didn't really eat a lot of breakfast, nor did he have lunch, and that combined with everything that was going on meant that he was starving.

They ordered quite a bit of food, and while the waiter looked slightly uncomfortable at how much they had ordered, Yurio couldn't have cared less. Once the food had arrived, he grabbed the nearest plate and began eating. He wasn't even sure if he had grabbed sushi, a plate of rice and meat, or a bowl of noodles. He just needed to get food in his mouth.

Otabek and Phichit, although not as eagerly as Yurio, started eating as well, and both looked pretty happy to have a meal after a long day. They also had a long night ahead of them, so it was a good idea to eat up now.

"Hey, are you two excited about the anime convention tomorrow?" Phichit was the first one to speak since they had sat down.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Otabek chuckled, and watching Otabek smile like that, as usual, made Yurio's neck hairs stand on end. Again, it sounded strange, but he liked it so much when Otabek smiled. It was nice to see Otabek so relaxed since he was so guarded most of the time, especially around some of the more bubbly people they knew, and it made it all the more surprising that Otabek and Phichit apparently worked together a lot when it came to shipping and anime.

Yurio didn't realize the conversation that had started, so he was caught off-guard when Phichit asked him if he was going to cosplay at the convention. Yurio jumped a bit, but he regained his composure after a few moments as a pang of excitement filled him.

"I'm going as Ciel. You guys watch Black Butler, right?" Yurio said with a grin as Otabek and Phichit nodded to confirm his question, although he subconsciously lowered his volume since he was quite ashamed, for a lack of a better term, about his obsession with anime.

"That's awesome!" Phichit looked like he was about to jump out of his seat, and Otabek gave Yurio a thumbs up.

"Are you guys going to cosplay?" Yurio questioned.

"Why wouldn't we?!" Phichit, if possible, looked even more excited than before. "I'm going as Levi, and Otabek's dressing up as Mey Rin!"

With that, Yurio nearly spit his food out, and he choked a bit on a noodle. In a muffled, choking voice, Yurio exclaimed, "You're going as Mey Rin?!"

"You have a problem with that?" Otabek quirked up an eyebrow and looked to be quite amused.

"N-no! Not at all! It's just that I didn't expect for you of all people to go to the convention in a maid's costume," Yurio drank some water to help him get the food in his throat down. "If anything," Yurio added, "I think it's pretty cool that you're going as her."

Otabek chuckled and took a bite of sushi, "She's a badass, almost as much as Sebastian, and it gives me an excuse to carry a replica rifle around. It'd be fun to wear a dress and not get judged, too, since we are going to an anime convention."

At the thought of Otabek wearing a maid's dress, Yurio almost got a noise-bleed, and he felt the redness in his veins rise to his cheeks.

"Looks like someone likes the idea of that." Yurio nearly fainted when he realized that Otabek and Phichit had caught onto how much he'd like to entertain himself with the idea of Otabek in a dress.

"Ooh!" Phichit's face split into his widest smile yet, and he pressed his hands together as he had a fanboy moment. Phichit's smile widened even further when Otabek reached over to Yurio and tucked a loose strand of blonde hair behind Yurio's ear. Phichit looked to be on the verge of screaming in excitement while Yurio's blush just reddened, and then, Otabek leaned in even closer and whispered, "If you'd like, I could show you my costume when we get back from the Ice Castle Rink."

Otabek's voice was nothing more than a low whisper so that the surrounding tables couldn't hear, and it sounded quite deep and husky, making the scene all the more blush-inducing for Yurio. Still, he was glad that Otabek was speaking at such a low volume, for if Phichit had heard what Otabek had said, he would be guaranteed to scream and maybe even fall from his chair in utter glee.

"Would you like to see that?" Otabek asked once more.

Yurio, in a nearly automatic manner, nodded, "Y-yeah... that'd be nice." Yurio smiled at Otabek, the scarlet clear on his cheeks.

As if the line hadn't been said enough, the whole thing sounded odd, but it felt so right. Perhaps it was about time he opened up, maybe just a little more, and maybe just to one person, but having a relationship like this sounded quite nice. Yurio had been denying himself something like this for so long. It was about time he let himself experience something like this.

* * *

"We're so glad that you're here!" Victor had his classic heart-shaped smile on his face, and he was waving excitedly as Yurio, Otabek, and Phichit came into view of Yuuri's family's bath-house. Yurio took in the calm, peaceful sounds that already surrounded him, and upon looking at the wood and stone, quaint structure, Yurio realized that he had forgotten how pleasant the bath-house is and could already feel the warm water against his skin. He sighed, though, in knowing that he couldn't enjoy the warm bathwater.

He was still in his disguise and pretending that he was Phichit's cousin's girlfriend, and since bathers were separated by gender, it would certainly freak out a few and confuse the rest if he took a dip in the ladies' bath. All in all, if he didn't want to risk being found out, he had to forgo the bath, and his aching joints were sorely disappointed, pun not intended. Oh well; at least he could snoop around while everyone was distracted with Phichit and Otabek.

"You guys want a quick dip in the hot-springs? Maybe some dinner?" Yuuri asked, him being his usual polite, if slightly reversed self.

"That'd be great!" Phichit answered Yuuri's question when they arrived at the front door. "But we've already eaten since we were so hungry, so I think we'll just bathe!"

"Oh, would you like to take a soak in the hot-springs, too?" Yuuri turned to Yurio, completely unaware that he was actually Yurio and not some friend's random relative's girlfriend.

Yurio quickly thought up an excuse, and he sniffed and faked a sneeze.

Phichit and Otabek caught onto what Yurio was trying to do, and Otabek quickly explained, "I'm afraid that she has a bit of a cold at the moment, so bathing in the baths might not be a good idea."

"Oh, we understand," Victor nodded, and he quickly grabbed onto Phichit and Otabek's shoulders. "Well, what're you two waiting for? Come on! I don't think you guys have been in a hot-spring before, correct?"

"No, we haven't before, but that would be lovely," Otabek nodded, and Phichit nodded as well in agreement.

Yuuri turned to Yurio, "Oh, we don't even know your name yet!"

"My name's Mary," Yurio said, and he tried to raise his voice and hide his accent to sound more convincing. The cold he was faking probably helped to excuse his odd voice as well.

"My mom's brewing some tea right now. Would you like to have some?" Yuuri suggested. Yurio nodded, and he shuffled behind Yuuri as he lead him towards his mother, who was making a pot of tea.

"Hey, mom, this is Phichit's cousin's girlfriend, the person that I mentioned yesterday. She has a cold, so do you think she could have some tea?" Yuuri asked.

"Oh, of course!" his mother replied. She quickly grabbed a teacup, poured some tea, and gently handed Yurio the cup.

"T-thank-you," Yurio took the cup and drank a small, tentative sip. Yurio waited for Yuuri to go away, and he asked Yuuri's mother, "Excuse me, do you know where the restroom is?"

"That way," Yuuri's mom pointed to a hallway, and after a quiet thank-you, Yurio set the teacup down and walked into the hallway. He took this as an opportunity to snoop around, and with some luck, he'd find Victor and Yuuri's room. There weren't a lot of rooms, so finding their room didn't sound too difficult.

Suddenly, a room caught his attention. He paused, and saw a door that was slightly parted, spiking his curiosity and causing for him to peek in. This was _so_ Victor and Yuuri's room. There was a huge dog's bed for Makkachin, and Yuuri seldom knew a person who had a dog as large as Victor's. There was also a huge poster on the wall that was essentially a wedding photo. Now, this photo wasn't a publicly shared photo, so this had to be Yuuri and Victor's room.

Yurio remembered it quite clearly. Victor and Yuuri weren't legally married because both of their countries didn't recognize same-sex marriage; however, Yuuri and Victor had invited all the friends and family that they could to an unofficial wedding, the both of them saying that it would have to do until they could legally get married. It was a nice ceremony, and Yurio had internally fanboyed for the entire time.

Those same fanboy instincts kicked off in his head, and he could practically feel a light-bulb go off above him. Quickly taking out his phone, he zoomed in close to make sure that no other component of their room was visible, and he took a photo of the huge wedding poster on the wall. This was going to be great! A leaked wedding photo alone would cause everyone on the internet to flip out, so this was perfect for the collab!

He carefully looked around the room, and the floor was scattered with some clothes, which mostly consisted of Victor's jackets and sweatpants. Yup, this was so Victor. With that, he found a key with a small tag attached to it that said in messy, all-caps sharpie, "FOR ICE CASTLE SKATING RINK." That was probably Victor's key. When Victor was still in Russia, Yurio remembered how Victor was so disorganized and forgot stuff so often that he had to label all of his stuff, including his keys.

Yurio quickly snatched the keys off the table and shoved them in his pocket. There was also a slip of paper with the same handwriting that was on the keys, saying, "Security pin to Ice Castle Rink." That wasn't all too surprising. If Victor needed a label to remember which key was which, he'd need to label which piece of paper contained security pins, and Yurio quickly snapped a picture of the pin for future reference. Oh, what a night tonight would be, but he couldn't help but feel a tingly sensation in his stomach, as if something was about to go wrong.

There was a sudden door creak, and Yurio almost jumped and screamed. He had to think of something, fast, or else the shipping quest would be put in jeopardy. Yurio looked around, praying to god that the room had a good hiding place.

All he could say was...

Shit. He was fucked.

* * *

 **Yes, yes, I ended on a cliff-hanger. I'm very sorry, but I couldn't help myself! I hope you enjoyed, and I'm very, extremely, so, so, so sorry that I haven't updated in such a while! Life's been... heh, heh... *looks at the calendar to see that exam season's around the corner***

 **But, I'll have more time to write once summer vacation starts, so I have that to look forward to! You can make it, everyone! School'll be out for three months soon! I hope you guys review even though I haven't updated in a while. I really appreciate them, and although you don't have to review, they make me feel a lot better about the stuff that I write. I hope that the premise of facial recognition software and breaking into an ice skating rink doesn't sound too absurd, but I couldn't think of much else. It's the writer's block talking!**

 **Have a nice day, and see you next update, which will hopefully take less time than this one! :)**


	7. I Like You Very Much

**Chapter 7: I Like You Very Much**

* * *

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! He was so fucked! Either Victor or Yuuri was going to walk in here, discover his identity, and everyone was going to know about his obsession with shipping! Plus, Yakov was going to drag him back to Russia whether he liked it or not, cursing and screaming if necessary. Yurio had only been snooping around Yuuri and Victor's room for a few minutes, and he was already on the verge of being caught!

He quickly turned his head around in search for a hiding place, and thinking that it was his best bet, Yurio dove into the laundry basket, much to his regret. He then found himself covered in dirty laundry just as a figure walked into the room, but even if he was on the verge of being found out, the most terrifying thing about his situation quickly became the suffocating stench of dirty laundry.

Granted, most dirty laundry smelled terrible, but this was the dirty laundry of two athletes. This meant two things: one, the laundry in question would be sticky and gross as hell; and two, the sticky, gross-as-hell laundry would stink. A lot. Yurio knew this from personal experience. If you weren't prepared, entering the skaters' locker room could knock you out with the stench alone, and this stench was carried home with the athlete.

Yurio held his breath as whoever had entered the room paced around. After daring to peek through a tiny hole within the wooden weave of the laundry basket, Yurio could barely see the outline of Yuuri's body. Honestly, Yurio was hoping that Victor was the one who had entered the room since the Russian man was so inattentive that he probably would've missed Yurio all together, but unfortunately, Yuuri, who was more aware of his surroundings than Victor, was the one who had decided to come in.

And, just to make Yurio's situation that little bit more dreadful than it already was, he started sweating, which exacerbated the already uncomfortable problem of being in a basket full of dirty clothes. Yurio brought his hand up to his nose to pinch it in an effort to dampen the stench that was wrecking carnage on his notrils. He also avoided taking deep breaths and tried holding his breath in as much as he could in order to block out the awful smell, and even though he wasn't too religious, he prayed to god that Yuuri would leave before he passed out from the reek of sweaty clothes.

After a few seconds, Yurio could hear his heartbeat thump so loudly in his ears that he was afraid that he'd get discovered just because of the noise from his chest, and the stream of hopeful prayers for god to make Yuuri leave soon continued. Of course, he prayed in his head and not out loud, but it still counted, right?

Time ticked by as slowly as flowing molasses. Every second felt like an eternity, and Yurio was afraid that he'd snap from the suspense any moment. Why couldn't Yuuri just leave?! Why did he have to show up now of all times?! Why was he even here, in this laundry basket, in the first place?! Out of everything that had happened this week, and out of everything that had happened in his life, really, this was by far one of the most absurd things he was doing.

How the hell did he find himself hiding in a laundry basket while trying to steal the keys to an ice skating rink that wasn't too far away from a ninja house? And, as a side-note, that was probably the most bizarre sentence that had ever sounded in his head.

It had only been minutes, but Yurio could've sworn that the universe had ended and restarted multiple times, as weird as that comparison sounded. His legs had started to cramp up, too, because the laundry basket was quite small.

Yuuri walked in and out of his closet a few times, and each time, he had either grabbed some clothes or put something back in the closet, probably because he was deciding on something to wear. Yurio wasn't exactly sure why Yuuri was being so choosy with his clothes, since the last time he checked, Yuuri, Victor, Otabek, and Phichit were only taking a soak in the hot-springs, an activity that didn't require much clothing. Oh well. Yurio guessed that even if he didn't find out what the clothes were for, it wasn't like it mattered at this point. He just wanted with the wishing-power of a thousand stars for Yuuri to get out.

Finally, while he was in the middle of another prayer for Yuuri to leave, Yurio's wish finally came true. With soft footsteps, the piggy at last left, and Yurio leaped out of the laundry basket at what seemed to be an inhuman speed. Although, to be fair, anyone would've done the same thing after being stuck in such a smelly and crammed circumstance.

Yurio slid into the hallway, craned his head around a few times in order to make sure that the coast was clear, and sped back to the main room before anyone started getting suspicious.

When he got back to the main room of the inn, he saw Yuuri's mother waving at him upon noticing that he had returned from the "restroom."

"Hi there! You left your tea, so I was wondering if you wanted the rest of your cup," Yuuri's mother lifted the cup up to Yurio's now shaking hands, and Yurio forced himself to slap a smile on his face. He wasn't sure how convincing his smile was, but if Yuuri's mom had noticed anything odd about him, she was too nice to say anything about it, which Yurio greatly appreciated.

"T-thank-you," Yurio managed to stutter out, and he hoped that he sounded natural enough.

"Would you like to do anything, since you're just waiting for your friends to finish bathing?" Yuuri's mother asked, her tone sweet and unassuming.

"N-no... I-I'll be fine, but thank-you," Yurio exhaled a pent-up breath that he hadn't realized was there, and he took a sip of the now slightly cooled tea. He downed the entire cup with a few more sips, and he was offered another serving, which he agreed to with little hesitation. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep within the past few days, and tonight, he'd need all the energy he could get. Nothing short of a nice, tall cup of strong coffee was probably needed at this point, but Yurio would get caffeine wherever he could find it.

With that, Yuuri's mom walked off to help a guest with something, and when Yurio turned to the TV, he suddenly found himself within a very uncomfortable, very awkward situation. On the TV was a clip of the program he had done a few months ago, and the awkwardness of it all was really getting to him. By now, you'd probably assume that Yurio was used to seeing himself on TV, but Yurio was more self-conscious of seeing himself on television than he was letting on.

In fact, he was a lot less confident than everybody thought he was. The edge of arrogance to his personality was all just a cover to help him run away from the heaping pile of insecurity that was sixteen years in the making.

His mother not being a part of his life; the constant berating from Yakov, although Yurio did know that he meant well, it was just Yakov being Yakov; his own struggle with his sexuality; the hate he'd face if he ever came out; his crush on Otabek; the fact that the world, and even those closest to him, only saw the image of himself that he had carefully constructed; his inability to open up; it all... got to him.

Yurio bit back a tear and balled up his hand into a fist. He couldn't cry, not now. He was in a relatively crowded room, and Otabek, Phichit, and the two love-birds would return from the bath-house any second. Yurio sighed as all the emotions he had tried to run away from for years started bubbling up.

He whispered to himself in a hushed voice so that no one else would hear, "What... what the hell am I doing with my life?" **(A/N: On a side-note, that is a question I ask myself literally every day XD)**

But then, Otabek and Phichit and their shipping quest came to mind. He knew that during the entire trip, he had been wondering how he had gotten swept into all of this in the first place, but he couldn't help but let it bring a smile to his face. He could confidently say that it was so far one of the best weeks of his life, and even though a shipping quest was just as absurd as it sounded, it felt right. It felt satisfying to be himself around two people who cared about him. It felt satisfying to let himself go, if only for a little bit, and to not be so uptight when he was around other people.

He had been so scared of opening himself up, but once he did, once he stepped past the personal gate he had put around himself, he found that it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was quite nice to break out of his shell, and for only a second, he let his mind release all the questions that had been plaguing it.

Just then, he heard Phichit's loud, annoying, yet comforting voice, and although he wasn't exactly sure of what Phichit said, as his mind had wandered off to some part of the room, he liked how it felt to hear his _friend's_ voice. Yes, _friend._ Otabek called out as well, and Yurio couldn't help but smile.

* * *

This was an odd, odd situation right now, the oddest situation that Yurio had found himself tangled in all week, and that included that bizarre laundry basket incident that had happened just a few hours ago. Sure, they were on this crazy shipping quest, and sure, Yurio was just beginning to realize how much he liked Otabek, but now, they were flat-out breaking into a building. It was ten past midnight, and everything around them was still. The air was silent, there was not a soul in sight except for our beloved shipping trio, and the only source of light was the thin sliver of crescent moon above.

Trees loomed over them, and they made the scene exceptionally ominous. It made Yurio nervous. What if they got caught?! What if things didn't go according to plan?! Hell, what if all the things the three of them had gone through for good shipping material wasn't enough to appease their massive audiences?! Yurio was so worried that all their followers would think that the end product of their collab was underwhelming, especially considering that they had huge shipping, anime, and theory accounts.

He had voiced his concern a little while back, although in a passive-aggressive way, so that was probably the reason why Otabek and Phichit only gave Yurio quick, unassuming reassurances.

Yurio reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand tightly around the sharp edges of the keys from Victor and Yuuri's room, and he felt the ligaments and tendons in his fingers tense.

The night wasn't that cold at all, or at least it was nothing compared to Russia, but Yurio found himself shivering.

Something was about to go wrong, and he knew it. He just had that uneasy feeling in his gut.

"Can I have the keys?" Phichit whispered over to Yurio, which snapped him out of his current train of thought. Yurio gasped softly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Yeah," Yurio took out the hand that was shoved in his pocket, and he felt the key's ring loop around his forefinger. The key jangled from his finger, and Phichit eagerly grabbed it before unlocking the door.

"Hmm, looks like Victor and Yuuri aren't here yet," Phichit commented. It made pretty good sense since if Yuuri and Victor were here, the door probably would've been unlocked. Still, Yurio knew that the two of them, despite Victor's absent-mindedness, were careful. They spent most of the day avoiding fans, so they were quite skilled at evading the cameras' eyes. So, since Victor and Yuuri were careful and probably would've thought to lock the door behind them, the three of them had to be careful, too.

Phichit must have realized that as well, and Yurio had to admit to himself that Phichit was sharper than what many people gave him credit for. Phichit opened the door, and he noticeably winced when they heard the door creak. Phichit, this time even more slowly than before, cracked open the door, and he motioned for Yurio and Otabek to come in.

Then, all of a sudden, the alarm started blaring.

"Crap!" Yurio frantically dug around in his pockets for the security pin that he had luckily taken from Victor and Yuuri's room. "Here, I have the security pin, too!" He practically slammed the slip of paper into Phichit's hands, and Phichit as quickly as humanly possible rushed around the rink in search for the keypad to enter in the security code.

Phichit took a little longer than what felt to be comfortable finding the keypad and fumbling around with the piece of paper containing the security code, but in the end, he managed to punch in the key, causing for all three of them to collectively sigh in relief.

The three of them must've been having a lucky streak because due to the lack of response to the alarm, Victor and Yuuri must have not arrived yet.

"Let's go," Phichit marched over into the hallway, and Otabek and Yurio followed after Otabek closed the door behind them. Even though the rink was empty except for the three of them, they tip-toed across the floor and to the ice rink. They found a hallway that gave them a good view of the rink but still hid them from anyone who was on the ice, and they took out their phones and iPads to prepare to take pictures.

They waited around for a while, about fifteen minutes, and then they heard the blare of the alarm, only for the noise to be turned off. Victor and Yuuri had arrived!

"Okay, okay, everyone, get your cameras ready!" Phichit whisper-shouted as he visibly sweated, and the hugest grin made its way on his face. Yurio was sweating bullets, too, but not out of excitement; it was because of his nerves.

"You going to be okay?" Otabek whispered over to Yurio, and Yurio jumped a little at Otabek's question.

"I... I'm..." Yurio sighed and tilted his head down. "I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

Otabek smiled and put his hand over Yurio's, causing for Yurio to blush, and he smiled back at Otabek.

"Is it okay if I kiss you on the cheek?" Otabek whispered into Yurio's ear, and Yurio said a quiet yes as his heart almost stopped. With that, Otabek leaned over, brushed some hair out of Yurio's face, and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek. His face turned even redder, and he feared that he now resembled a strawberry with blonde hair. Despite that, though, it was pretty delightful. He didn't even care that Phichit was fanboying in the background, his hands over his wide-as-can-be smile.

"AWWW! SO CUTE!" Phichit squealed, in a hushed voice of course, and he snapped a quick photo. It caused for Yurio to immediately spring up to Phichit, and he did his best to glare daggers.

"Phichit! Delete that now!" Yurio yelled as quietly at Phichit as he could so that Yuuri and Victor wouldn't hear, and he lunged forward in an attempt to grab the phone out of Phichit's hand. Phichit quickly leaped out of the position he was seated in, but Yurio tackled him to the ground, which created a loud crash.

Yurio would've cursed, but that on top of the crash that had just sounded probably would've caused for the three of them to get found out.

"Hey, Victor, did you hear that?" the three of them froze as Yuuri's voice echoed through the empty ice rink.

Yurio felt his blood turn cold, and tingles went up and down his spine, the panic rising uncomfortably in his throat.

Phichit was about to say something, but Otabek quickly slapped his hand onto Phichit's mouth so that the only sound he produced was a quiet mumble. Luckily, that small noise didn't echo around that much, but that crash Yurio and Phichit had just produced probably meant that they had to move somewhere, and fast.

The three of them quickly jumped on their feet and sped to the back of the hallway, but after running for a few seconds, they found that the hallway in front of them was split into two. Out of the panic, Yurio sprinted into the right hallway, and when he stopped sprinting and turned around, he saw that Otabek and Phichit were nowhere to be seen, which probably meant that they had entered the left hallway.

Yurio wasn't sure if there was enough time to turn back, and then, he heard footsteps, followed by Victor's voice, "Hmm... are you sure you weren't just hearing things, Yuuri?"

"I swear that I heard a loud crash somewhere."

"After we check this hallway, we'll go and see if there's anything in the other one, okay. Will that make you feel better?"

"Yeah... I'm paranoid of any fans or reporters that might've sneaked in, you know?"

 _"Crap!"_ was the only word going through Yurio's mind. He knew that if he ran or even walked, he would risk being heard, but if he just stayed here, Victor and Yuuri would find him. He looked up. Now was the time for a convenient air-vent to appear, and the stars must have been aligned or something, because the most convenient air-vent in history was above him. After he removed the lid of the air-vent, he used his nimble body to gracefully climb up the air-vent within the short hallway without making much of a noise. And, just as Victor and Yuuri were passing beneath him, he put the cover of the air-vent back on.

Now all he could do was hold his breath in anxiousness and wait a while for Victor and Yuuri to leave. He found this to be a great opportunity to photograph the two, though, especially since they were holding hands, so through the little slits in the vent's cover, he took a few pictures. Well, okay, more than a few. It was more like a few dozen, but a few extra photos never hurt, right?

He saw Yuuri and Victor leave from his line of sight, and after a few minutes, they walked back in the opposite direction they had came from, presumably to check the other hallway. However, Yurio still stayed up in the air-vent for a few more minutes, just in case.

Yuuri and Victor didn't return to the hallway, so Yuuri assumed that he was safe. He wiggled down, careful not to create too much noise upon his landing, and he set the cover of the air-vent back in place. He ran, albeit as quietly as possible, down the hallway, and he arrived at a locker-room. He didn't exactly feel like entering. Training had him entering the locker-room of his home rink more than enough times, and he really didn't want to enter such a bad-smelling room.

So, instead of going into the locker-room, Yurio leaned against the room's door and slid down with his back against it, and he felt the created static pull at his hair as he landed on the floor. He hit the floor, which gave off a soft thump.

His phone beeped, and he checked it to see that he had gotten a text from Otabek.

It said, _"Victor and Yuuri are tailing us. Just thought that we'd warn you. Love you!_ ❤ _"_

Yurio blushed, and he recalled the conversation he and Otabek had right before they left for the Ice Castle Rink, after they had returned from the bath-house.

* * *

 _They were in the hotel room, and it was only an hour until their planned break-in of the Ice Castle Rink. They were preparing their phones, iPads, and cameras, and they were making sure that they wouldn't run out of storage from taking so many photos of Victor and Yuuri, who were an admittedly adorable couple._

 _Phichit was in the shower since it had been a pretty long day. Plus, by the time he had returned from bathing in the hot-springs, his skin was red and slightly irritated. Yuuri suggested that taking a cool shower would help, so that was exactly what Phichit was doing. Yurio could even hear Phichit sigh in relief after he stepped into the shower._

 _So, with Phichit in the shower and unable to disturb them, they were alone together. It was kind of awkward, but also kind of nice. Yurio was looking at the tiger that had been painted on his thumb a few days ago, fondly remembering yet cringing at when he realized that Otabek had been flirting with him this whole time, and that prompted for him to say something._

 _"Hey... Otabek... I've... I've noticed the way you act around me..." he started and looked Otabek in the eyes, which were uncharacteristically nervous. Otabek looked down to his feet, and Yurio could see the small dusting of red on his cheeks._

 _"Yeah...?" Otabek replied, almost as if he was urging for Yurio to continue._

 _"I was just wondering... do... do you like me...?" Yurio inched closer, and he gently held his hand to the base of Otabek's chin to guide his head up to his eye-level. "Not just as a friend... but do you... like-like me?" Fuck... he sounded like a high-school girl. He didn't care, though. Not even his own cynicism could ruin this moment, and he was determined to keep it that way._

 _There was a long, restless pause, and Otabek leaned slightly into Yurio's hand._

 _"Can I show you?" Otabek requested._

 _"How would you do that?" Yurio cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "But, yes, could you? Because... because I like you... I think that I like-like you, too."_

 _Otabek smiled softly, and Yurio's heart skipped a beat. Otabek lifted his head from Yurio's hand, and he leaned into the Russian's face. Their lips were practically touching, and Otabek softly verified once more if he could do this, "Can I?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _Otabek finally did it._

 _Their lips pressed up against each other's, and it was as if fireworks were going off in Yurio's brain. He had never thought that first kisses could actually be that magical, not like in the movies, but at this very moment, he was proven wrong. It felt so, so right. The tension that had spent so long building up had finally been released, and while Yurio was craving more, he knew that this was not the time nor place. If they did anything other than a kiss, Phichit would probably inconveniently finish his shower and walk in on them._

 _It was far too short, but so magical, and as Otabek backed away, his cheeks now beet-red, he held his hand up to Yurio's cheek to massage the corner of his lip._

 _"You liked it?" Otabek shyly questioned._

 _"Yes."_

 _The word rolled off his tongue as if it was the most natural thing ever. Yurio had never felt this comfortable before._

 _"Could I have another one?" Yurio was now the one asking for kisses._

 _"Yes."_

 _Otabek closed in on Yurio's lips again, and they shared another kiss, this one shorter than the first, but it was definitely not the last. This kiss was quick yet nice. Yurio had never really thought about when his first kiss would happen; well, at least not before now. Now, though, he wished the he had realized his and Otabek's feelings sooner. He didn't know what to do when they had to part ways for several months to train, or how they'd maintain the long-distance relationship, but for some reason, Yurio had this feeling in his chest that it would work._

 _"I like you... I've liked you for a while... longer than you probably would've thought."_

 _"Really?"_

 _"Yeah... I've liked you for an embarrassingly long time..."_

 _"On really? How long?"_

 _"I'd... I'd rather not say..."_

 _Instead of demanding an answer, Yurio leaned in and kissed Otabek again. This time, it was a small peck. They shared a hug, and they stayed that way for a while. They stayed that way until Phichit came out from his shower, and they broke apart before Phichit could notice and start fanboying. Phichit started packing his suitcase, and luckily, he seemed oblivious of Yurio and Otabek's previous interaction._

 _Since Phichit was occupied with packing his stuff, Otabek whispered into Yurio's ear, "Guess we're boyfriends, huh?" Otabek giggled._

 _"Yeah," Yurio chuckled back at him._

 _"I like you very much."_

 _"I like you, too."_

* * *

Yurio shuttered as he thought about the first kiss he had partaken in just one or two hours ago, and he could still feel the tingle of Otabek's lips. He was still sitting against the locker-room's door, and he was waiting with baited breath for the sound of blades hitting ice to resonate through the rink. He knew that once he could hear skates on the ice, he would know that Yuuri and Victor had stopped investigating and started skating.

He anxiously kept track of the minutes and stared, eyes wide, at his phone's screen. He had started texting Otabek, too, so that they could keep track of where the other was, and they were planning to meet up in the hallway they were originally hiding in so that they could see where they could go from there.

After a while, they determined that the coast was clear when they heard ice-skates hitting the ground. Yuuri and Victor were probably only warming up, but cute pictures of them skating were cute pictures of them skating. With that, Yurio jumped up and rushed down the hallway, and he met Otabek and Phichit at the point where the hallway split. They nodded at each other in acknowledgement, and Otabek informed Yurio that he had gotten Phichit to delete the photo he had taken, much to Yurio's relief.

With their cameras ready, selfie sticks in hand, and their fingers positioned directly over their phones to make sure that they didn't suddenly turn off before they could tap the screen to wake up said phone, the three of them immediately began snapping pictures. It had been an odd night, but Yurio had to chalk this night down as a good one. He didn't exactly know what he was doing with his life, but at least for this one week, he did: he was spending time with two friends.

* * *

 **Yeah... I'm really sorry for not updating since last month... I really hope that people still remember that this story exists! DX But, on the bright side, my last day of school for the year is tomorrow, which gives me three whole months to write! :D Yay summer!**

 **Please review if you'd wish; I really appreciate it since it lets me know that people are actually reading and not just glancing over the chapter. Have a nice day, and I wish you all a good summer!**


	8. Yurio's First Anime Convention!

**Chapter 8: Yurio's First Anime Convention!**

 **WARNING: I'VE DONE VERY, VERY LIGHT RESEARCH ABOUT ANIMES FOR THIS CHAPTER, AND HAVE NOT NECESSARILY WATCHED ALL THE ANIMES THAT I'VE MENTIONED. I'VE WATCHED SOME OF THE MENTIONED ANIMES, BUT I DEFINITELY NEED TO CATCH UP ON MANY OF THEM, SO PLEASE DON'T HATE ME IF I HAVEN'T WATCHED YOU FAVORITE ANIME. AND I AM *DEFINITELY* NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT THAT I NEEDED TO TURN TO THE INTERNET TO RESEARCH CHARACTERS AND SHOWS SINCE THIS CHAPTER PRIMARILY TAKES PLACE AT AN ANIME CONVENTION. AND ALSO, I'VE NEVER BEEN TO A CONVENTION BEFORE SINCE I'M A SHY INTROVERT, SO PLEASE CORRECT ME IF THERE ARE ANY MISTAKES IN MY PERCEPTION OF WHAT A CONVENTION IS TYPICALLY LIKE.**

* * *

"Yurio. Yurio...! Yurio!" Yurio groaned as he heard Phichit's voice, and he felt a hand shake his body. He was very groggy, and it was as if a heavy weight had been resting on his body while Phichit tried to get him up and out of bed. Last night had been a long night. Well, sneaking into an ice-skating rink, nearly getting caught sneaking in several times, and taking pictures all night in said ice rink tended to exhaust someone pretty quickly, but apparently, Phichit wasn't feeling the effects of staying up so late. Yurio was almost secretly jealous of how hyper and energetic Phichit was.

Phichit must've gotten the bright idea of throwing the blinds open because when Yurio dared to crack open his eyes, he was nearly blinded by the bright lights that were flooding the room. He closed his eyes and slammed his hands over them, and he hissed like a vampire that had been exposed to sunlight.

"Phichit, close the fucking blinds! It's so bright!" Yurio wailed as he violently ducked underneath the covers. Unfortunately, Phichit was there to throw the blankets off of Yurio's tired, shivering body, and Yurio started shaking at the unexpected hit of cold air.

"Yurio! Yurio! Look! It's snowing! It's snowing!" Phichit was ecstatic, and he forced Yurio up and to his feet. Yurio grumbled, crossed his arms, and stubbornly sat back down.

"Phichit, do you even know what time it is?!" Yurio yelled at Phichit as loudly as he could without waking up the surrounding rooms. He tried to smooth back his hair, too, because he knew that his blonde locks were at the moment in complete disarray, but as soon as he smoothed back his hair, he felt it pop back up, causing for him to sigh in annoyance.

"It's already six-thirty in the morning! I've been up since four, and you missed the sunrise and when the snow started falling! Look! Isn't it beautiful?!" Phichit rushed to the window and pressed his face against it. Yurio could practically see how in-awe Phichit was despite the fact that his face was turned, and he figured that since Phichit was from Thailand, a place where it didn't snow at all, he would naturally be excited whenever he could see the full effects of winter.

"Phichit, you do realize I'm from _Russia,_ right?" Yurio gave Phichit a look, and he practically glared out the window. Yurio was beyond sick of the sight of snow, him being from a country famous for the cold, but despite his annoyance at Phichit, Yurio did realize that Phichit saw snow too infrequently to make him hate it. Yes, snow was fun to play in. Yes, the snow made a good background for some epic selfies. But all of that was more than balanced out after you've scraped the windshield of your car for the twentieth time and after you've shoveled your driveway on an equal number of occasions.

Yes, it was safe to say that Yurio was sick of snow, and he had thought that spring had finally brought an end to the unexpected blizzards. Apparently, the weather wasn't on his side.

Yurio, after his internal rage about snow had died down enough, turned to see Phichit taking what was probably at least a few dozen pictures of the snow outside, and when Yurio pulled out his phone to check his social media, his feed was already flooded with the pictures Phichit had just taken.

Yurio grumbled, and he looked to the spot behind him. He and Otabek had been snuggling last night, but the place next to him was at the moment flat and cold. He heard that the shower was on, and he figured that Otabek was showering in the other room. He was slightly disappointed, though, because he had wanted a morning kiss. Oh well, he could ask for a kiss later.

Yurio, after a few minutes, had finally decided to swing his feet over the bed and stand up. He shuffled to the other side of the room, knelt down in front of his suitcase, and gathered his clothes. A pang of excitement rang through him. Today was the anime convention he had been waiting for during this entire week! His nerves were tingling with elation. He retrieved some black shorts, a black dress shirt that had ruffles, a black suit jacket, a pair of black, flat-heeled boots, and, of course, an eye-patch. He had set the top-hat and wig of his costume on the TV counter so that all of his stuff wouldn't squish those items, and he excitedly grabbed the hat and wig. He gave the hat a quick flick to smooth out the wrinkles, and he adjusted some of the hairs of his wig.

Yurio laid out his cosplay outfit on the bed he and Otabek had been sharing for the past few days, and he gathered his cat-decorated towel and bathrobe. He patiently waited for Otabek to appear from the shower, and when he heard the shower turn off and a few clanks and footsteps, Otabek stepped into the room and in front of Yurio, smiling. After requesting and receiving a kiss on his forehead, Yurio grabbed his towel and bathrobe and headed to the bathroom.

He locked the door behind him, turned on the shower, and quickly brushed his teeth while he waited for the water to warm up. When he finished brushing his teeth, he undressed, hung his towel and bathrobe on the hook adjacent to the shower, and stepped in. He sighed in relief when the warm water hit his skin. It had been a few days since he'd last showered because due to all of the chaos that had filled those last few days, he had forgotten to bathe or shower himself.

He would've liked to take a bath if he had the time, and it would've done wonders to relax his muscles. However, he, Otabek, and Phichit had an anime convention to get to, so Yurio had to get ready as quickly as possible. The lines leading into the convention would be ridiculously long, so it was best to get there early.

Upon shampooing and conditioning his hair, Yurio scrubbed his body down, and he felt a warm calmness wash over him as he felt completely clean for the first time in days. He had planned to take a tower after their excursion to Ice Castle Rink, but that obviously didn't happen. He wasn't even able to let Otabek fulfill the promise he had made about showing Yurio his cosplay outfit, and it was all because Yurio dropped to bed and fell asleep as soon as they got back to their room.

The shower finished. Yurio turned the faucet off, and he felt quite freshened-up. He stepped out of the shower, patted himself dry with his towel, and slipped his bathrobe on. He threw his towel into the laundry basket and stepped out, and what he saw next nearly gave him a nosebleed for, what? The third or second time this week?

"Damn, that's a nice costume!" Phichit exclaimed.

Yurio, too, couldn't help but react strongly to Otabek's awesome-looking cosplay outfit, and he spent the next five minutes gawking like a fangirl at how good Otabek looked in a maid's dress.

"Thanks," Otabek grinned and slung his replica shotgun over his shoulder. He winked at Yurio, and Yurio, no matter how hard he tried, couldn't divert his eyes from Otabek.

Yurio hadn't noticed this since his mind was so foggy when Phichit had woken him up, but now that his brain was clear, he saw that Phicht was dressed as Levi Ackerman, meaning that Yurio was the last one to get dressed.

To compensate for him being the last to get ready, he quickly slid on his costume, and he topped it all off with the cane he had kept stashed away at the bottom of his suitcase. This cane had been expensive, and since he was too embarrassed to visit the local anime store in St. Petersburg, he had ordered the thing online for a ridiculous markup. Therefore, he had kept his cane safely tucked away in his suitcase, and only got it out for the convention.

"You look amzing!" Otabek gave Yurio a thumps up while Phichit looked like a proud parent, and Phichit was practically bouncing off the walls in pure and utter excitement. For the first time in a while, Yurio smiled in front of his two friends, and they filed out of the hotel room to get to the anime convention.

* * *

It must've been odd to see three people who happened to be piled into a motorcycle dressed as anime characters, riding into the horizon with their cameras and selfie-sticks in hand. Yurio tried his best not to feel self-conscious, but he couldn't help himself from crouching behind Otabek and clutching onto him a bit tighter than he normally did. He was just glad that he had a wig and eye-patch to avoid anyone recognizing him.

The hotel Phichit had booked was very close to the convention area, and it made Yurio suspect that Phichit had more foresight than what most people gave him credit for. It only took a few minutes of driving in the motorcycle for them to arrive at the convention area, and they hopped off the motorbike, parked it outside the building, and rushed into the sprawling lines in front of the convention.

They knew that getting into the actual convention building would take quite a while, even though they were early, because this was a massive convention. It was certainly the largest convention Yurio had seen because, of course, he'd never been to an anime convention before. His stomach tingled with both excitement and fear. He was scared of being judged, so much so that he had to remind himself that the chances of getting judged at an anime convention for liking anime were nearly non-existent. He also had to reassure himself that no one would recognize him and that the chances of anyone he knew, besides Phichit and Otabek, actually being at the convention were minute.

Otabek must've sensed Yurio's apprehension because he leaned down to Yurio's ear and whispered through the loud, restless crowd, "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah... I'm nervous, though. This is my first convention," Yurio admitted.

"Don't worry, you'll have fun. I guarantee it," Otabek gently patted Yurio on the shoulder.

"Really?" Yurio asked. He sounded like a scared child before their first day of school, and he let himself have this moment of vulnerability.

"Yeah. I didn't think that I'd enjoy going to conventions until Phichit practically dragged me to one, but I actually had a great time. Don't worry, we'll walk around, buy some merchandise, and I think that you'll have a lot more fun than you think you will," Otabek capped off his sentence with a quick kiss to Yurio's cheek, and it caused for his face to heat up behind the eye-patch and strands of wig hairs in his face.

"Thanks," Yurio gave out a deep, anxious sigh, and he kissed Otabek back before Phichit could turn around and fanboy about it.

They waited for what seemed like an eternity, but finally, the lines, at a painstakingly slow pace, started to move. Yurio's heart jumped along with him. He could barely contain his excitement for the event. Him, Otabek, and Phichit inched forward, and when Yurio looked behind him, he was glad that they had decided to come early. As far as the eye could see, people were lined up around blocks and buildings to enter the convention.

Yurio had never thought that he'd ever encounter so many people that were anime nerds, just like him. Before this week, he didn't think that he'd ever find even one friend whom he could share his anime and shipping obsession with, much less an entire building-full of them. Phichit and Otabek were also supposed to speak in their own panels, and Yurio was excited to be able to tag along and hear Phichit talk about ships and listen to all the anime theories Otabek had.

They waited in line for another good hour before they arrived at security, and after the long wait, they were at least in the building.

The convention area was huge, which was good because the place was already packed with people, and not everyone had even arrived yet! There was food, there were people at stands selling merchandise, and Yurio could already see the posters and figurines that he absolutely needed to get his hands on. Most of all, though, the place had more cosplayers than what Yurio had ever seen before in his life.

There were of course the more popular outfits, including people in groups dressed up as the characters from Haikyuu, some Naruto costumes, a group of girls dressed as Sailor Moon characters, an L Lawliet costume, and someone who had dyed their hair to look like Izuku from My Hero Academia. There were also people cosplaying as characters from more obscure animes that Yurio couldn't recognize, and he made a note to find out which animes those characters were from to add to his extensive list of animes that he needed to watch.

Yurio's eyes shone as he stared on into the crowd, and he was so into it that Otabek had to gently tap Yurio on the shoulder to snap him out of it. Yurio jumped out of his slight trance, and he turned to look at Otabek, who smiled that gentle smile of his. Yurio couldn't help but smile, too. Whether if it was because of the fact that he was finally at the convention or because he had Otabek with him, or a bit of both, he didn't know, but whatever which way, he was happy to finally be at a place where he felt safe to be himself.

Phichit had a panel coming up at the convention, so getting to that panel was their first priority since it started in about ten minutes. Yes, having ten minutes to get to and prepare for a panel wasn't ideal, but since he was Phichit, he'd somehow make it work in a way that made Yurio's jaw drop at how well put-together it was despite the fact that Phichit had procrastinated for about three months. It was Phichit, so it was best not to question it.

Luckily, the panel wasn't too far away, and considering the crowds, they got to the room the panel was being held in surprisingly quickly.

They arrived after about five minutes of walking, and while Phichit rushed up to the front to be at the panel, Yurio and Otabek managed to find some seats near the front to watch their friend discuss various ships with other content creators. The panel was in a small room, and it was getting more crowded by the second. Yurio was grateful that he and Otabek had found seats for the hour-long panel. They were situated in one of the many rows of folding chairs, and Yurio leaned against Otabek's shoulder as Otabek gingerly put an arm around Yurio, the two of them getting nice and comfortable.

The panel would last for about an hour, which would give the group of three about four hours to look around and eat before they had to arrive at Otabek's panel. For that hour, Yurio listened in utter fascination as Phichit and the other people at the front of the panel talked and argued about different ships, and he was especially attentive when Victuuri and Lawlight were being talked about.

It was a bit uncomfortable having to constantly readjust his wig, and Yurio was paranoid of being recognized for the entire panel. However, he pulled through and actually enjoyed himself for once. It was so nice being away from the stress of the rink for the week, even if Yakov was going to give Yurio hell after he returned to Russia, but Yurio didn't care. This little, unexpectedly fun vacation was doing wonders to recharge Yurio's previously drained batteries, and he knew that once he got back to the figure-skating rink, he'd be ready for whatever Yakov had to throw at him.

The panel ended, and despite the security guards' efforts to corral everyone out in a single-file line, that obviously wasn't happening. Everyone chaotically shuffled out with approximately half the crowd sprinting for the door. Yurio had to cling onto Otabek to prevent himself from being trampled or separated from the main group, and he made sure to securely hold his wig and hat in place to make sure that his disguise/cosplay didn't get messed up.

Five minutes later, though, Yurio, Otabek, and Phichit, who were happy to be in one piece (no pun intended), were standing outside of a merchandise stand, and Yurio was contemplating whether he should buy a YuuriXVictor poster or a figurine of Sebastian carrying Ciel. He had a limited amount of money he could spend, and the problem was exacerbated by Phichit's budgeting troubles.

Yurio knew that at any moment, Phichit would beg for either him or Otabek to lend some spare cash so that he could buy some of the over-priced yet awesome stuff that was up for sale, so the blonde figure-skater definitely had to keep a close watch on the amount of money in his wallet, not to mention that he had to consider other expenses that were not related to the convention.

The three of them spent the next hour and a half perusing the cool items that were being sold, taking selfies with people who they thought had great cosplay outfits, and watching people dressed as their favorite anime characters who were on the stage up front having the most epic rap battle they had ever seen take place.

Things were going swell, even more so than Yurio could've ever hoped. He wasn't being recognized, he had gotten cool merchandise, and most of all, he was spending this amazing time with two friends who understood his obsession with anime and shipping. Yurio didn't think that the day could've gotten any better.

That was, until the most unlucky coincidence in the world happened to poor little Yurio.

You see, since the ship Victuuri was being heavily featured in the convention, and since it was near where Victor and Yuuri lived...

"YUURI! THIS IS GREAT! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'VE FOUND SO MANY POSTERS OF YOU IN A SINGLE LOCATION!" a familiar and heavily accented voice rang through the noise of the convention area, and that voice might as well have been giving Yurio a death sentence. It was _Victor's_ voice. Victor _fucking_ Nikiforov. Why? Why did life have to be so cruel to him? What had he done in a past life to deserve... well... this freakin' disaster waiting to happen?

Why did fate always have to take the side opposite to Yurio's?

Then, just to rub salt in the wound, he saw Yuuri and Victor cosplaying as a couple from an anime that Yurio had been meaning to watch for some time now. Why did it rub salt in the wound, you ask? Well, that's because Yurio remembered clearly that when he had hid in the laundry basket within Victor and Yuuri's bedroom last chapter, he saw Yuuri picking out clothes that looked almost identical to the two lovebirds' current cosplay situation.

Dammit! He should've known that the old man and the piggy would've shown up at this freaking convention! The conclusion was so obvious that Yurio wanted to smack himself in the face, but before he could do that, Otabek and Phichit gently guided him to another area of the convention just as all three of them heard Yuuri anxiously scream for Victor not to get too carried away with the Victuuri and Yuuri Katsuki posters.

Otabek and Phichit quickly yet carefully lead Yurio's now limp with shock legs to one of the food vendors within the building, and they huddled up inspirational-sports-movie-style to come up with some emergency plans.

"Goddammit! Why are you so stupid, Yuri?!" Yurio chastised himself for not considering that something like this could happen and even smacked himself on the forehead a few times, but Otabek eventually got Yurio to calm down so that they could figure out what to do.

"Listen," Otabek knelt down so that he was closer to Yurio and Phichit's eye-level, and he continued, sounding as if he was being as reassuring as he could, "I know that this looks bad, and I know that if Victor or Yuuri recognize any of us, particularly Yuri, we're screwed, but I know that there's a way out of this."

"Well, what way do you see?" Yurio couldn't care less if he sounded brash. Everyone was allowed to have those moments where they questioned everything and were losing their shit. However, despite the fact that Yurio was only one unfortunate event away from self-imploding, Otabek's demeanor remained calm.

"Okay, here's what we'll do" Otabek began as he took a deep breath. "I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but we have to split up."

Yurio tensed, and he knew that Otabek noticed because he began to elaborate in the lowest, sweetest, and quietest tone known to man, "Think about it. If we're traveling in one group, it'll be easier to notice us, especially since we have fans at this convention. If Yurio's off on his own, it'll be less likely that someone sees and recognizes him, and if he's seen with either me or Phichit, someone's bound to make the connection and realize that you're actually Yuri Plisetsky and not Phichit's cousin's girlfriend."

"Also, since Victor and Yuuri see us quite often, if they see us, they'll for sure come up and talk to us, and while we've had close calls with them in the past, I'd rather have us not risk it again. So, Yurio will have to separate from Phichit and me for the time being, and you'll have to avoid Victor and Yuuri as much as you can. We'll split up after we buy some lunch, and then we'll meet up in time for my panel. If everyone okay with this plan?"

As much as Yurio had this bad feeling in his gut, and as much as he didn't want to spend the convention away from Otabek, Yurio knew that Otabek was right. They had to split up because sooner or later, a fan of Phichit or Otabek's was going to come up, see that he was actually Yuri Plisetsky, and cause for Yurio's world to crumble, so, begrudgingly, Yurio agreed. They got some sandwiches, and after a quick goodbye kiss from Otabek, Yurio was off on his own.

He was nervous, particularly because this was his first anime convention, and he didn't know quite where to go. But, after a little while, he had managed to start enjoying himself. He did a variety of things, which included, but weren't limited to, participating in a sing-off with someone who was dressed as Alois Trancy, getting HunterXHunter stickers, and even buying some Cowboy Bebop mangas and DVDs.

Yurio checked his phone's clock. He had thirty minutes until Otabek's panel, so he decided to visit the Victuuri merchandise section of the building. There were so many VictorXYuuri fans that the convention had to dedicate an entire, separate building that branched off from the main one to Victuuri, and when Yurio arrived, he was not disappointed.

There were countless couples dressed as Yuuri and Victor. Some were same-sex couples while some were heterosexual couples, but Yurio was just glad that the magical ship had gotten to so many people. Okay, well, it was more than a ship since it was an actual relationship between two actual people, and while Yurio knew that he couldn't stay for long since Victor or Yuuri could pop up at any second, he managed to spend some time oohing and awing at all that was there.

There was so much merchandise on sale. There were Victuuri figurines and posters, CD's of all the music that Victor and Yuuri had used for their skating routines, and a Victuuri-themed photo-booth for couples to take pictures in. Yurio briefly thought about the possibility of him and Otabek taking pictures in that booth.

There was even a section where you could buy your own ice-skates.

Of course, the song History Maker was playing on blast. Phichit, non-surprisingly, was the person who had initially paired the footage of Victor and Yuuri's first pair-skate with the song, and everyone on the internet went nuts over it. Safe to say, the song went viral, and it became the anthem of Victuuri shippers the world over. People had even created some pretty funny parodies of the song, and each of those parodies had hundreds of thousands, if not millions of hits, since the couple is so popular (not to mention downright adorable!).

Yurio left satisfied and with a Makkachin plushy. He didn't want to go too overboard since the more merchandise he bought, the more likely it was that someone would eventually discover said merchandise, but an inconspicuous-looking plushy of a dog probably wouldn't raise too much suspicion other than the question of whether or not Yurio hated dogs as much as he seemed to. If someone did discover the Makkachin plushy, it could easily be explained away as some random gift a friend had given him, since stuffed-animals were a pretty normal gift.

Yurio couldn't say the same for the body pillows that said "VICTUURI 4 LIFE" on them, though.

As much as he wanted a body pillow, it would probably push the envelope too far, not to mention be too hard to hide. Still, Yurio was fairly happy with his adorable little Makkachin plushy, and it even came with a free, Makkachin-shaped tissue-holder, just like the one Victor and Yuuri use when they have to be away from Makkachin due to skating competitions.

Yurio checked the time on his phone again.

Otabek's panel would start soon. Yurio increased his pace of his walking, and after a few minutes, he was jogging through the crowd of people to get to Otabek's panel on time. He also tried not to run too quickly or else he'd attract too much attention towards himself.

He arrived at the room where the panel was being held at, and he ran into Otabek, who was just about to walk out to the front of the room. Otabek had some note-cards in his hands, and that made Yurio even more excited for his presentation. Phichit was next to Otabek, too, and Phichit had his usual huge grin on his face. Phichit gave Otabek a thumbs up that said, "Good luck!" while Yurio opted for giving Otabek a big, lengthy hug. He felt Otabek kiss him on the forehead, and Yurio whispered to his boyfriend, "Good luck with the panel."

"Thank-you," Otabek gave Yurio another kiss, this time on the lips, and he, still looking fabulous in his maid's dress, strut out to the front of the room and sat down at the table, among the other people who had also been invited to speak at the panel.

Phichit lead Yurio to a seat in the front, and before long, the panel began.

Yurio and Phichit listened to Otabek and the other theorists talk about different theories they had about different animes, and Yurio and Phichit even gave in their own input at certain points. The people who were invited to speak at the panel talked about anything and everything. The conversation went from predicting what would happen in season three of Attack on Titan to child-ruining conspiracy theories about Yugioh to recommendations concerning which animes, both popular and obscure, everyone needed to watch as soon as they were home from the convention. They also suggested different apps and websites people could use to watch anime on, and they went over a list of online anime sources that potentially contained viruses so that everyone's computers would be safe for the event where one had to binge-watch anime, which according to everyone at the convention, was whenever you could find the time.

Of course that made sense! In the words of a woman who was on the panel, "You can always find time to watch anime! Even if that does mean putting off a few important school or work assignments until the night before..." That comment made everyone in the room howl in laughter because everyone in the room could relate.

One of the people in charge of the panel started talking about their analysis of both Death Note openings. Then, they revealed their dissections and interpretations of multiple Studio Ghibli films, and just as Yurio started to settle himself into the convention and started to get comfortable, an unwelcome surprise barged into the room.

"Sorry that we're so late!"

Yurio froze at the sound of that voice.

Yurio straightened his posture, turned around at what was practically the speed of sound, and let his jaw drop to the floor. Luck really wasn't planning to be on his side today, was it? There were Yuuri and Victor, standing there and looking stupid (but adorable) in their couple's cosplay, and Victor, as usual, had his on inhumanly-wide, heart-shaped grin while his arm was wrapped firmly around Yuuri's shoulders. Yuuri looked to be nervous, which wasn't exactly out of the ordinary, and the Japanese man adjusted his glasses as Victor pulled him to the front of the room.

The other people at the front of the panel had expressions that were a mix of annoyance and just down-right confusion; however, when Otabek mentioned Victor and Yuuri's names, everyone's jaws dropped as they quickly realized who was in the room with them.

Immediately, people sprang from their seats and, like a hoard of zombies, surrounded Victor and Yuuri, begging for their autographs. Yurio was tempted to try and get an autograph as well, but he decided against it. During competition season, he saw Victor and Yuuri close to everyday, which was more than enough; not to mention, he didn't want to run the risk of either Victor or Yuuri recognizing his face. They had spent a lot of time around Yurio in the past, so they knew the features of his face well.

Yurio sat awkwardly in his seat, but while he was planted firmly in his chair, Phichit jumped up and ran to chat with his friends. It looked as if he was trying to get an interview.

Yurio saw Otabek's eyes nearly pop out of his head upon Victor and Yuuri entering, but despite his apparent yet subtle panic, Otabek attempted to get Victor and Yuuir's attention to decrease the chances of them noticing Yurio. Victor complemented Otabek on his cosplay once he noticed that Otabek was waving at him and his fiance, and it prompted for Yurio to carefully crouch down in his seat. He hid as much of his face as he could with his hat and wig. He made sure that his eye-patch was in place, too, because it would help in hiding his identity, and even though Yurio was on the verge of having a mental breakdown at this point, he sought comfort in how Otabek and Phichit were trying to distract Yuuri and Victor for him.

Yurio could feel sweat seep through his wig and clothes. He fiddled with his hands to keep himself from screaming out of anxiety. Yurio looked up and intently stared at the scene before him. Yuuri, being his shy self, looked just as panicked as Yurio felt, although Yurio was aware that he was significantly better at hiding his feelings of apprehension than Yuuri. Yurio did his best to keep his face calm, expressionless, and cold, while Yuuri's features were scrunched up and contorted to display discomfort.

Victor whispered something into Yuuri's ear, which made him smile and hold onto Victor's hand tightly, and Yurio could've sworn that he saw Yuuri blush.

It was no surprise that everyone was freaking out at the fact that Victor and Yuuri were at the convention. They didn't make public appearances often since Yuuri was so awkward with interviews and being chased by the paparazzi. Victor, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, he seemed to drink up all the attention he and Yuuri were getting, and he looked eager to pose for the camera.

Victor even lifted Yuuri up in the air for a picture, causing for Yurio to immediately swipe out his phone. There was no way he could miss an opportunity like this, not to mention that these pictures would be fantastic for the three-way collab! Pictures of Victor and Yuuri were hard to come by, since the couple were trying their best to avoid the hoards of fans for Yuuri's sake, so Yurio couldn't not take a picture of the cute site of Victor holding Yuuri in the air and kissing him.

Yurio took a few dozen pictures of figure-skating's most famous couple, and he took a few more dozen when Victor set Yuuri down and began doing a little dance with him. Yurio was fanboying so intensely that he almost lost his composure, and he knew for a fact that his life wouldn't be complete if he didn't snap at least twenty photos of this event.

The room had gotten so congested that security even threatened to kick Yuuri and Victor out if everyone didn't settle down, but even when things settled down, Yurio knew that word had already gotten out that Victor and Yuuri were within the vicinity.

Yurio saw Otabek duck out of the conversation he had been having with Yuuri and Victor since the pair were now taking selfies with Phichit, and Otabek quickly made his way to Yurio's location.

"Hey, do you think that you want to exit the room? The panel's almost over, anyway, and even if we did continue until the end, I don't think that we'd get to talk about much with Victor and Yuuri in the same room," Otabek suggested. Yurio immediately agreed. It was so crowded and packed that Yurio and Otabek had to squeeze their way out of the room, and Yurio's hand grasped Otabek's for the entire time so that they wouldn't get separated.

Once they were out of the room that had previously been hosting a panel (previously because the room was now a Victuuri photo-shoot) and entered safe and sound into the main convention area, Yurio thanked Otabek for helping him sneak out of the room.

"Hey, you think that Phichit will be busy since he's catching up with Yuuri and Victor?" Yurio asked, although it was more rhetorical than anything else. Otabek seemed to have picked up on the hint Yurio was giving because he smirked mischievously as he brought his fingers to his chin, making a scratching motion.

"What do you suggest that we do while we wait for Phichit?" Otabek questioned playfully.

Yurio shrugged, not really knowing what to do with the time they had. He'd already gotten all the items he had wanted to buy, and Otabek's panel was as good as over. So, he looked down at his hand, which was still clinging onto Otabek's, and he lightly tugged on Otabek's arm to suggest that they move away from the panel room, which was now filled to the brim with Victuuri fans.

They wandered around for a while, admiring all the fun anime figurines and posters that the convention had to offer. Otabek even got Yurio two stuffed cats. If you wanted to get specific, they were Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon.

They took some silly selfies and pictures, and Yurio was even tempted to post them online once he got back to Russia.

The convention went on, and Phichit had eventually found them through the massive crowd. Victor and Yuuri had detached from Phichit at some point to get some CD's at Yuuri's request, and Victor was obviously happy to agree. He'd probably travel the four corners of the globe by foot if it was for Yuuri.

It was now just the three of them. Phichit did not mind being the third wheel to him and Otabek at all, and Yurio even caught Phichit on a few occasions where he was holding his phone in one hand and was about to take the picture with the other.

However, Yurio found that if his glare was intense enough, it'd deter Phichit from taking any pictures of him and Otabek and posting them online. He'd announce his new relationship status himself, thank-you very much.

The day concluded with the three of them sitting outside the convention area, eating sushi burritos, and watching the sunset while Yurio cuddled with Otabek. Yurio didn't know how they had decided on sushi burritos, but they were pretty good, as bizarre as the food combination sounded on paper, and other than the one-million things that went wrong at the convention, Yurio still had a very good time, and he made a mental note that he'd definitely be going to next year's convention. It seemed to be an impossibility just last week, but now, it seemed realistic to think that maybe, just maybe, Yurio would build up the courage to show his face at that next anime convention.

* * *

 **Okay, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry to have kept you waiting for this chapter! This chapter is over 6,000 words long, making it the longest chapter of this fanfic yet, and I hope that that makes up for the insanely long update time! I thought that I'd have more time to write during the summer, but apparently, my brain's refusing to cooperate! DX**

 **Welp, I might be able to roll out another chapter, maybe even two, before summer vacation ends, but we'll see!**

 **As usual, please read and review, and we got only one review last chapter, sooo... ;-;**

 **It's almost three in the morning right now, and I still have to brush my teeth, so goodnight, and don't stay up until three writing and editing chapters! :)**


End file.
